"SOARD Of 1 



.FIUSETTS 



NEEDS AND POSSIBILITIES OF 
PART-TIME EDUCATION 



Special Report submitted to the Legislature 
January, 1913 




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^Ift (Hsmmanmmltli ot Mmmt^aBttta. 

BOARD OF EDUCATION. 



A SPECIAL REPORT 



Needs and Possibilities of 
Paet-time Education. 



January, 1913. 




BOSTON: 

WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS, 

18 Post Offick Square. 

1913. 






V 



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^'a^ 






X 






®l)e dommonroealtl) of itta00acl)U0ettB, 



REPORT ON PART-TIME EDUCATION. 



To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives. 

In accordance with the provisions of chapter 64, Resolves of 
1911, relative to the need and practicability of part-time school- 
ing, vocational or otherwise, for working children, the Board 
of Education herewith submits the results of the investigation, 
together with its recommendations. v 

The investigation was made and the report prepared under 
the direction of the Board by Commissioner of Education, 
David Sneddon, assisted by Special Agent Michael W. Murray. 
The Board adopts the report and endorses the recommenda- 
tions. 

EREDEEICK P. FISH, Chairman, 
SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD, 
ELLA LYMAK CABOT, 
SIMEON B. CHASE, 
LEVI L. CONANT, 
THOMAS B. EITZPATRICK, 
FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, 
PAUL HANUS, 
CLINTON Q. RICHMOND, 

Members of the Board. 
Jan. 1, 1913. . 



CONTENTS OF REPORT. 



Part I. — General Repokt. 

I. Authorization, 7 

II. Definition of Part-time Schooling, 8 

III. Need of Part-time Schooling, 9 

IV. Practicability of Establishing a System of Apprentice- 

ship, 14 

V. Practicability of Part-time Schooling, .... 14 
VI. Existing Means which might be made to furnish Voca- 
tional Training, . \ 18 

VII. Suggested Programs, 19 

VIII. Conclusions, 19 

IX. Recommendations, ........ 21 

X. Recommended Legislation, 22- 

Part II. — Appendixes. 

A. Aims and Scope of the Investigation, .... 25-36 

B. Existing Means for furnishing General and Vocational 

Education in the Commonwealth, .... 37-43 

C. Previous Education and Present Industrial Status of 

Selected Groups of Workers, 44-83 

D. Apprenticeship, ■ . 84-98 

E. Practicability of Part-time Schooling, .... 99-123 

r. Suggested Programs, 124-146 

G. Part-time Education in Commercial Establishments, . 147-159 



Part I. 

GENERAL REPORT. 



I. Authorization. 
Tlie following is the text of the resolve passed by the Legis- 
lature : — 

Resolves of 1911, Chapter 64. 
Besolved, That the board of education is hereby authorized and 
dii'eeted to investigate the need and practicability of part-time school- 
ing, vocational and otherwise, for working children, and also the estab- 
lishment of an apprenticeship system, especially for children between 
the ages of fourteen and seventeen years. The board shall investigate 
and report as to the means now existing which might be used to furnish 
vocational training, and is authorized to employ such agents as may be 
necessary to collect pertinent information from employers and others. 
The board shall report the result of its investigations with its recom- 
mendations, in print, to the general court not later than the second 
Wednesday in January, nineteen hundred and thirteen. For the pur- 
poses of this resolve, there shall be allowed and paid out of the treasury 
of the commonwealth a sum not exceeding six thousand five hundred 
dollars. 

In compliance to this resolve, the Board of Education directed 
the Commissioner of Education to make the necessary investi- 
gations and engage expert assistance. Mr. Michael W. Murray, 
director of vocational education for the city of ISTewton, was 
engaged as chief special agent to assist the commissioner in 
directing the study and preparing the report. 

Special acknowledgment is here made of the assistance of the 
following: Mr. Charles A. Prosser, secretary of the I^^ational 
Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education ; Dr, Susan 
M, Kingsbury, director, Research Department, Women's Educa- 
tional and Industrial Union; Mrs, John T. Prince, director, 
School of Salesmanship, Women's Educational and Industrial 
Union, who is responsible for Appendix G; Mr, Wm. H, Doo- 



8 

ley, director, Lowell Industrial School ; Mr. Charles Mills, gen- 
eral superintendent, Saco-Petee Machine Company; Miss Ruth 
Evans and Miss Abigail D. Steere, fellows of the Research 
Department of the Woman's Educational and Industrial Union. 
In making this report the problem has been considered under 
the four following heads, suggested by the resolve : — 

A. — Is there a need of part-time schooling, vocational or 
otherwise, for working children? 

B. — Is there a need of an apprenticeship system, and can 
such a system be established ? 

C. — Is a program of part-time schooling, vocational or other- 
wise, practicable ? 

D. — What means now exist which might be made to fur- 
nish vocational training? 

II. Definition of Part-time Schooling. 

Large numbers of young persons must enter upon productive 
employment before they have received as complete a liberal 
and vocational education as the best interests of the individual 
and of society require. 

A system of part-time schooling aims to give to persons al- 
ready employed in productive work the opportunity to devote 
a portion of their working time to attending school. The 
problem of part-time schooling or part-time education is, then, 
so to organize schools on the one hand and industries on the 
other that the young worker, while receiving due compensation 
for service rendered, may be enabled to distribute his time 
between a school and his productive employment in such a way 
as to make possible an effective education. 

The portion of the training given in school should aim (a) 
to utilize the practical experience of the learner in conjunction 
with special studies, to the specific end of promoting vocational 
efficiency; and (h) by appropriate studies of a liberal nature 
to promote general culture and civic efficiency. 

Under the system of apprenticeship once prevailing, modi- 
fied forms of part-time education were often found. Appren- 
tices, while performing regular tasks in the workshop, counting- 
room or on the farm, were required to give stated amounts 



9 

of time each day to attendance on classes for systematic study. 
In Germany and other countries this practice developed into 
organized forms of continuation schools, upon which attendance 
has now in most places been made compulsory to the extent of 
from six to twelve hours per week, and up to the ages of sixteen, 
seventeen or even eighteen years. In the earlier development 
of public education in the United States it was often necessary 
for pupils to work at home a portion of the year, thus leaving 
but a limited portion of time for attendance at school. This 
may be regarded as an unorganized and primitive form of part- 
time education. 

Part-time education assumes in practice many forms as re- 
spects the distribution of the time of the learner. In some 
instances a portion of each day may be given to school at- 
tendance; in others, one or more half -days per week. Other 
plans of part-time education provide for alternate weeks in shop 
and school, while in a few cases the periods of alternation may 
be longer. In the minor engineering callings in England pe- 
riods of alternation between practical work and school attend- 
ance range from three months to one year. In one type of 
German technical school, school attendance follows at least two 
years of practical work under apprenticeship. Various pro- 
grams of part-time education possible under conditions in 
Massachusetts are discussed in Appendix F. 

III. The !Meed of Part-time Schooling. 
It is estimated that there were in 1910 74,700 children in 
Massachusetts between the ages of fourteen and seventeen who 
were not in school. It is estimated that 40,000 of those who 
were not in school were regularly employed. Of the 40,000 
young people between fourteen and seventeen years of age who 
were reported as at work, the textile industry employed 17,306 
or 43 per cent. Boot and shoe factories took the second largest 
number, 5,003, while in the metal trades were found 2,042. 
The confectionery industry employed 904, and printing and 
publishing 768.^ Of the total number of these young workers it 
appears that 71 per cent, began work at or about fourteen years 

1 Complete census returns for 1909 are not given on printing and publishing. 



10 

of age. Taking the industries separately, 69 per cent, of the 
candy workers began work not later than fourteen. Of the 
young shoe workers, 56 per cent, started work at fourteen, 
while 79 per cent, of the textile group began at the same age. 

A large proportion of the 40,000 who are at work lose 
considerable time through shifting. For example, in the 
study of textile workers in Fall Eiver and '^ew Bedford (see 
Appendix C), 9.4 per cent, of the boys and 33.9 per cent, of 
the girls have lost from several months to a year, while 3.2 per 
cent, of the boys and 13 per cent, of the girls who have not 
married have lost from one to four years. The evil effects of 
constant or periodic idleness during this formative part of life 
cannot be too strongly emphasized, and show the need of super- 
vision of these young people during their first years at work. 
The work which they now do is monotonous, and because they 
cannot change from time to time to other kinds of work re- 
quiring a similar amount of skill, they lose their interest, and 
many leave only to loaf about. It was found in the studj' of 
Lowell boys, who seem to be typical (see Appendix C, II), that 
boys frequently leave one mill and go to another to do the same 
kind of work simply to secure a change in surroundings when 
they cannot change their work. 

The education which has been received by those who go to 
work between fourteen and seventeen years of age is often poor. 
Only one sixth of the children investigated by the Douglas 
commission in 1906 ^ had completed the grammar grades. In 
the present investigation it was found that the largest number, 
21.4 per cent, of the total leave at the seventh grade, and 43.6 
per cent, leave the grades below the seventh, while only 3.9 per 
cent, have gone beyond the grammar school. The data pre- 
sented in Appendix C seems to show that 10.4 per cent, of those 
entering the confectionery industry left at the fourth grade, 
while 35.3 per cent, of the young workers in cotton mills left at 
the fourth or fifth grades. More than three fourths, 76. 3 per 
cent., of the textile workers studied left school before entering 
the eighth grade, and only 1.6 per cent, went beyond the gram- 
mar school. The shoe workers stand best in education. Forty- 

1 Report of Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, p. 85. 



11 

seven and two-tentlis i^er cent, of those studied left at the eighth 
or ninth grades, and 8.3 per cent, went beyond the grammar 
school.^ 

It is generally conceded that industry as at present organized 
is not able satisfactorily to educate its young workers. Em- 
ployers find that their workers are poorly equipped in general 
knowledge, and lack specific training. Some employers assert 
that they are reorganizing their business so that it will be nec- 
essary to employ fewer young workers ; but a comparison of total 
numbers employed in the various industries in 1904 with the 
numbers found in 1909 shows a decided increase in the later 
year.^ This may mean that the less efficient factories are em- 
ploying larger numbers of young people. While employers 
complain of having to employ poorly equipped workers, there 
is much to be said, from the young worker's standpoint, as to 
the prevailing lack of opportunity to advance in industry. 
Judging from the study of 1,875 young workers made for this 
report there seem to exist few opportunities to progress from 
job to job which would make for advancement in vocational 
power. Frequently the first and last jobs are identical in char- 
acter, showing that while there may have been at times an ad- 
vance there is a decline later. ^ In the studies of Fall River and 
ISTew Bedford workers (see Appendix C, p. 53), cases were 
found in which there had been advances for the first two or 
three years, both in occupation and wage, followed by a decline, 
due to a lack of phj^sical strength. In addition, there seems to 
be considerable shifting from place to place and from job to job. 
Many of the workers who were interviewed had shifted several 
times. This was true even of some of those who had been work- 
ing only a year. There can be little if any educational value 
derived from a year's work if that has been spent in several 
factories. 

Many of the workers interviewed claimed that they had great 
difficulty in learning a process requiring skill. Because in three 
or four years they had been able to increase their wages but 
slightly, and could see little opportunity ahead, many give up 
work in factories for anything else which they can find. Part- 

1 See Table IV, Appendix C, p. 47. « See Appendix C, II, p. 55. 

2 Se3 Table I, Appendix A, p. 33. 



12 

time schools should aim to prepare such persons for this period 
of transition, and to pave the way to better industrial oppor- 
tunities. 

Long hours of monotonous employment, and the fact that 
under present conditions workers are being restricted to the 
operation of one or a few machines, with little opportunity to 
gain a general knowledge of the trade or business, make it 
imperative that part-time schools be established to give to young 
workers a broader knowledge of the industry than they are now 
able to secure. Under the present industrial system there is a 
dearth of capable foremen and superintendents, due to the lack 
of opportunity to obtain a general knowledge of the industry, a 
situation which should be met by part-time schools. 

In comparing the records of children who have been at work 
one year with those who have worked six years, we get much 
enlightenment as to the amount of progress made by the two 
groups. In the textile industry, which employs the largest num- 
ber of young people (see Appendix C, p. 73), we find that more 
advance is made proportionately in one year than in six. In 
the matter of wages, only 32.5 per cent, of those who have been 
at work six years have increased their earnings by amoimts of 
from $4 to $6, while 20 per. cent, of those who have worked only 
one year have had the same increase. Nineteen of those who 
had been working six years were still earning only the amount 
of their initial wage. Only one of the older group had increased 
his earnings more than $9 in six years, while two of the younger 
group had done this in one year. This situation would seem to 
indicate that those who have been at work six years have made 
very little progress over the group at work but one year. If 
this is a normal condition in certain industries, then part-time 
schools might give training which will enable these workers to 
get into other industries which offer better prospects. 

All-day vocational schools can render much service in bridg- 
ing the gap between the regular and part-time schools by 
discovering the type and character of work which can be given 
in part-time schools, and by serving as training centers for 
teachers of part-time and evening schools.^ The principal rea- 
son why these schools have as yet failed to reach larger num- 

• See Appendix B, p. 37. 



13 

bers is that when children have actually left school and started 
to work it is difficult to induce them or their parents to give 
up the full wage which is being earned. 

While the all-day vocational school can do much, it can- 
not entirely meet the need for industrial training. The ma- 
jority of young workers need experience to convince them of 
the need and value of vocational training. Seventy per cent, 
of the young workers interviewed were found to favor part-time 
schools, and their industrial experience was probably responsi- 
ble for this attitude. They had worked long enough to begin 
to realize their deficiencies in education, and to know the value 
of training along industrial lines. These workers could have 
steadier employment if they had sufficient industrial knowledge 
to enable them to shift from machine to machine, from depart- 
ment to department, and, in the case of seasonal trades, from 
one trade to another. 

Evening schools do not solve the problem as regards young 
workers under seventeen years of age, as the majority of them 
are too tired to attend, even where technical courses are offered. 
Experience shows that while many may register in evening 
schools a large proportion fail to attend throughout the term. 
To delay the training of these young workers who leave school 
at fourteen to a time when only a few may realize the need of 
instruction and attend an evening school must result in a dis- 
tinct loss. Evening attendance is, on the whole, a test of the 
energy, ambition and vigor of the wage earner to which many 
cannot conform. The rush home at the end of a long day's 
work, the hurried meal, and the long journey to school centers 
are handicaps which it is difficult to overcome. Large num- 
bers who are undoubtedly worth educating do not, when they 
reach maturity, attend an evening school, while of those who do 
many have been out of school for so many years that they have 
practically forgotten much of what they learned before leaving. 
Many young people would probably be glad to avail themselves 
of the opportunity to receive part-time instruction if it were 
offered immediately upon their leaving the elementary schools, 
but after a lapse of years in industry it will be difficult to induce 
them to take such training. 



14 



IV. Pkacticability of Establishing a System of Ap- 

PEENTICESHIP. 

In recent years, methods of manufacturing have undergone 
such radical changes that the older system of apprenticeship 
is, in the great majority of cases, no longer adapted to indus- 
try; and any substitute offered must be based on a realization 
of the fact that young people are no longer assistants to skilled 
workers who practice the whole craft, but are rather independ- 
ent units in the productive process.^ So far, little has been 
done to adjust the methods of industrial training to these new 
conditions. Even Germany does not show us adequately how 
this can be done, for the part-time or continuation school work 
for apprentices there is mainly for those employed in the hand- 
work trades. Young persons employed in the factories are 
classed with messengers and others who render miscellaneous 
service, and only general training is provided for them.- 
Massachusetts must, then, develop its own system of vocational 
training to fit the new conditions. It seems apparent that 
through a co-operative plan of part-time schooling we can pro- 
vide not only necessary liberal training, but also a substitute 
for apprenticeship which will meet new conditions. 

V. The Pkacticability of Part-time Schooling. 

The practicability of part-time training must be considered 
from at least three points of view : first, from that of the worker, 
his needs and economic condition ; second, from that of school 
instruction, especially with respect to the possibility of so 
organizing courses that effective teaching can be done ; and 
third, from that of the employing industry, with particular 
reference to the need of ^uch instruction for the future welfare 
of the industry and also as to the possibility of its being so con- 
ducted that a portion of the workers' time during the day can 
be devoted to school instruction. 

1. Practicability from the Standj^oint of the Worker'. — In- 
vestigation of the economic condition of workers fourteen to 

1 See appendix on "Apprenticeship," p. 84. 

* From special reports made by American consular service for this investigation. Not yet 
published. 



15 

seventeen years of age warrants the estimate that over 65 per 
cent, of these could in case of necessity give all their time to 
school, while approximately 35 per cent, apparently could not 
do so. Those who were able, as judged by their economic con- 
dition, to remain in school doubtless left in many cases either 
because they were not getting what they wanted or because they 
failed in what was expected of them. These youths are often 
of the type that learns by experience and by doing, and conse- 
quently they and their parents much preferred working to at- 
tending school of the prevailing type. 

A full-time day vocational school might deal effectively with 
a large proportion of the first group; but much which can be 
taught in a day vocational school can also be given in part-time 
schools, with the advantage in favor of the greater reality of 
part-time instruction. For those whose economic condition com- 
pels them to earn wages, part-time schooling is the only practi- 
cable method of prolonging the opportunities for education. 
Many of these doubtless are not interested in further education, 
but there is no reason why these should not eventually be re- 
quired to equip themselves properly for useful careers. 

The inauguration of any extensive plan of part-time school- 
ing would necessarily involve an adjustment of the wage scale 
proportionate to the amount of service rendered in industry. 
Some industries have a dull season which might in part be util- 
ized for school attendance." Department stores often have a 
dull period during the day when time could perhaps be given to 
the school without a loss of pay. There is evidence to show that 
in work requiring much thought and reasoning power, the time 
taken for instruction of the right kind soon brings increased 
earnings to the worker and a greater profit to the employer. 
There are many workers who are so anxious to improve their 
condition that when aj)proached on the subject they have stated 
that they would give up Saturday afternoons, their only free 
time, for purposes of instruction. In the city of Lowell, the 
only place which has yet offered the opportunity for this, 165 
have already demonstrated that they are in earnest in this 
matter. 

2. From the standpoint of school organization part-time 
schooling, whether vocational or otherwise, is practicable. Sue- 



16 

cessful part-time instruction has already been given to groups 
selected from different industries/ in Massachusetts and in 
other States. The part-time instruction has been designed for 
selected groups in these cases, which do not represent the whole 
number of young people employed in any one establishment ; 
but there appears to be no reason why vocational and other 
schools cannot be so organized that equally good work can be 
done with all others employed in these industries, provided time 
is given to admit of the training of teachers and directors and 
the development of suitable courses of study. 

With a minimum of time, for example eight hours per week 
of school work, it would be possible to do no more than remove 
elementary school deficiencies, while giving some general train- 
ing in citizenship and in such technical subjects as drawing, 
design and industrial calculations. In the case of many girls 
engaged in occupations requiring little or no technical knowl- 
edge, instruction might consist largely of training in the house- 
hold arts. To give any adequate training in the technique of 
the trade in which the worker is employed not less than eight or 
ten hours per week for a period of three or four years would 
be required. Yoimg people employed in juvenile or temporary 
work ought to be trained towards adult service in some other 
industry or trade. To make it practicable to do this, about 
one half of their working time should be taken. This may be 
done by devoting a half of each day, every other day, or every 
other week, to school work. 

3. From the standpoint of the organization of industry it 
appears to be generally practicable to arrange the work being 
done by young people so that a part of their working time can 
be taken to attend school. As is pointed out on page 104, part- 
time courses of thirteen different kinds now exist ; and arrange- 
ments have just been completed for instruction along eleven ^ 
additional lines. In most cases the initiative in organizing these 
courses has been taken by manufacturers themselves, some of 
them starting classes in their own factories and later turning 

' Candy making, printing, salesmanship for department stores and other mercantile estab- 
lishments, office work, pattern making, machine work, draughting, iron moulding, tinsmithing 
saw making, bricklaying, carpentry, textiles. See Appendix E, p. 104. 

' Electrical work, shipwrighting, ship fitting, ship caulking, cabinet making, plumbing, black- 
smithing, coppersmithing, steam fitting, boiler making and riveting, sheet-iron working. See 
Appendix E, p. 106. 



17 

them over to the public schools. In the case of department 
stores the work was started by a private agency which, when it 
reached the limit of its available resources, was able to transfer 
its work to the stores, which added the cost to overhead expenses 
and conducted the classes themselves. In some lines of employ- 
ment, such as that of department stores, candy making, and boot 
and shoe manufacturing, at least a portion of the time devoted to 
school work can be taken during a dull season of the year or a 
dull part of the day, but in any large plan which will provide 
for the training of every boy and girl some means must be 
found of filling the places of most of those who are for the time 
attending school. In some lines of business this can be accom- 
j)lished by having two people trained to do the same work. In 
certain parts of England the textile business has been so organ- 
ized for years that young workers are paired at assigned tasks, 
one working in the morning, the other in the afternoon, and 
each attending school the portion of the day when not employed. 
In America machine shops, foundries, printing establishments, 
and to some extent the textile industries, provide for a plan 
whereby alternating weeks are given by young workers to shop 
and to school. Two boys are employed on the same job, one 
working in the shop one week while his partner attends 
school. The next week they exchange places. In this way 
production in the factory or shop is not interrupted, the student 
gains valuable practical experience upon which to build during 
the week in school, and the teacher can use this practical experi- 
ence as a basis of training. In this State and elsewhere certain 
machine shop, printing, and confectionery establishments are 
already sending selected groups to school for periods of from 
four to six hours in length during one working day of each week. 
In many instances this is being done during a dull period of the 
day, when the services of the absentees can be spared with a 
minimum of inconvenience. To organize this plan on a scale 
permitting each young employee to have a half day a week of 
instruction would necessitate the employment of a force from 
one twelfth to one eleventh larger in each case. If more time 
were devoted to school work, a force larger in proportion to 
the amount of time given to the school would be required. In 
many factories to-day such an extra force is maintained 



18 

to fill the places of those who are out for sickness or any other 
cause. This would be merely an extension of the same system.. 

Any system of part-time instruction made compulsory at 
the present time, with the slight knowledge on the part of 
employers as to how they might organize their business in 
harmony with it, would probably lead to a reduction in the 
number of their young em-ployees ; perhaps, in some cases, to 
their ceasing to employ children altogether. In the case of 
textile work, where some employers might abandon the em- 
ployment of children altogether, others would probably find it 
profitable to engage those discharged by their competitors. The 
net result, however, could hardly fail to be to throw out of work 
large numbers of children who need the wage, and whom the 
schools are not prepared to handle efficiently. 

Employers who have thought about the problem at all not 
only feel that something ought to be done, but they are ready 
to co-operate as soon as the opportunity is presented. They 
confess their inability to give the time and thought necessary 
to work out a solution themselves, but await the submission of 
practical plans. Not a few are asking to have the problem 
studied as it relates to their own business, with the hope of 
receiving practical suggestions. Employers in Massachusetts 
are generally interested in the happiness, welfare and efficiency 
of their employees. They are ready for the formulation and 
promotion of practical plans of co-operation between the school 
and the employer in the interests of both our children and our 
industries, and there is abundant reason to believe that it is 
possible to carry out, on a basis of voluntary co-operation, as 
extensive plans for part-time schooling as the State is prepared 
to handle efficiently. (See Appendix F, p. 124.) 

VI. Existing Means which might be made to furnish 
Vocational Training. 
In 1906 the Douglas commission called attention in a force- 
ful way to the educational and industrial condition of boys 
and girls between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years, 
and recommended a new type of school to meet their needs. 
These schools have been established in an experimental way in 



19 

a few communities, but they should be extended, developed and 
made the agency to work out courses of study, to develop 
teachers and methods of teaching, and to put into operation co- 
operative plans of part-time schooling as a substitute for the 
old system of apprenticeship.^ 

yil. Suggested Peogkams. 
It is recommended that the programs of part-time training 
offered provide for both liberal and vocational training. If 
only four or five hours per week are devoted to the school, the 
training offered should be primarily liberal, and aim to make 
the workers more intelligent industrial and civic units. When 
more than this amount of time can be given the training should 
be both liberal and vocational.^ 

VIII. Conclusions. , 

As a result of the present inquiry into the needs of part-time 
education, the following conclusions have been reached : — 

1. There is a distinct need for the further development of 
part-time education in Massachusetts, evidenced by the fact 
that upwards of 40,000 young persons from fourteen to seven- 
teen years of age are constantly employed in wage-earning 
pursuits, most of whom have not completed an elementary edu- 
cation, and nearly all of whom have little or no opportunity for 
systematic vocational training toward occupations suitable to 
adults. 

2. Part-time education as a means of giving more adequate 
liberal. and vocational education to young people already em- 
ployed is, in large measure at least, practicable, both from the 
standpoint of the employing industries and from the standpoint 
of the schools, as a means of efficient instruction for young 
persons. 

3. The further development of part-time education in Mas- 
sachusetts requires but little legislation additional to that now 
existing. There is need, however, for the further development 
of existing agencies for the conduct of vocational education, 

1 See Appendix B, "Existing Systems of General and Vocational Education," p. 37. 

2 See Appendix F, p. 124. 



20 

and also for the elaboration and testing of practicable plans for 
part-time training. 

4. Existing agencies of vocational education, including even- 
ing schools, while effective within the limits of their present 
development, reach as yet comparatively few of the young 
people of the Commonwealth. 

5. There is no evidence that systems of apprenticeship of the 
character once common in the trades can be revived and em- 
ployed as a means of meeting the need of vocational education 
for young people from fourteen to seventeen years of age. 

6. The historic policy of Massachusetts as regards education 
has been, first, to make the offering of an educational opportu- 
nity permissive on the part of the community ; second, to make 
mandatory the offering of the opportunity ; and third, to make 
it compulsory on the part of young persons to take advantage 
of the opportunity. The first step in this policy has already 
been taken, so far as vocational education is concerned, and 
thirty-five cities and towns have made very creditable begin- 
nings in the work of offering opportunities along vocational 
lines. Most communities, however, do not yet offer such oppor- 
tunities for vocational education. There is no evidence to show 
that a need for it does not exist; indeed, this investigation has 
shown that many young people might be reached in these cities 
which do not yet offer vocational education, and that much more 
might yet be done even in communities which are now maintain- 
ing such schools. The experience of the last four years in deal- 
ing with the problem, and the facts collected during this inves- 
tigation, justify the conclusion that the general Massachusetts 
policy of moving forward by voluntary schemes of experimenta- 
tion and investigation should be continued, with the ultimate 
view of further educating in some degree every boy and girl 
between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. 

7. Legislation already enacted relative to vocational and part- 
time education has been soimd. Chapter 471, Acts of 1911, is 
fully adequate for the further establishment of voluntary part- 
time courses, and for their supervision on an efficient basis. It 
is the belief of the Board that part-time schooling should be 
made compulsory throughout the State at some time in the fu- 
ture, when all children employed between the ages of fourteen 



21 

and seventeen might be required by law to attend part-time 
schools, at the rate of not less than eight hours weekly. When 
this is done these schools should offer courses of general training 
for citizenship, and, in the case of the girls' trades, where suffi- 
cient related and theoretical training cannot be given, training 
in the household arts should be substituted. 

8. The further development of part-time education will re- 
quire that the Board should employ at least one permanent 
agent for the promotion of this type of education. It should 
be this agent's duty to aid communities in the establishment of 
part-time courses. He should also collect such information as 
would be of value in planning courses of study for industries 
with reference to which sufficient information is not available. 

9. Legislation should be enacted which will make suitable 
provision for the training of future vocational school teachers 
and directors, and for the professional improvement of those 
now in the service. To do this the State Board of Education 
should be empowered and directed to organize training classes, 
to which should be admitted persons with a sufficiently broad 
trade or industrial experience to enable them to become teachers 
of part-time or other vocational work.-^ 

10. The interests of all forms of education require that ex- 
isting laws regarding school attendance should be more effec- 
tively administered. Where these prove inadequate to meet 
the needs of part-time education, further educational legisla- 
tion should be enacted. 

IX. Recommendations. 

In obedience to the resolve, the Board of Education respect- 
fully submits the following recommendations : — 

I. . Legislation should be enacted requiring the attendance 
upon some school of every child, not specifically exempted for 
satisfactory cause, between fourteen and sixteen years of age, 
who is not regularly employed; in addition to which, such 
changes in the present laws regarding compulsory education 
should be enacted as will enable school committees effectively 
to control and require the attendance at approved schools of 
boys and girls of such ages. 

1 See Appendix F, " Programs for Training Teachers," p. 124. 



22 

II. Legislation should be enacted which will enable cities 
and towns, through their school committees, to require part-time 
school attendance of all boys and girls between fourteen and six- 
teen years of age who are regularly employed, at a rate of not 
less than four hours per week upon an approved school during 
the time when such schools are in session. Such attendance 
should be made between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. of any 
working day or days. 

III. The Board of Education recommends in addition to 
legislation providing for the compulsory attendance on school 
of all unemployed children under sixteen years of age, the pas- 
sage of the following proposed act : — 

An Act to provide for the Establishment and Maintenance of 
Continuation Schools and Courses of Instruction for the 
Education of Young Persons between Fourteen and Sixteen 
Years of Age who are regularly employed. 
Be it enacted, etc., as follows: 

Section 1. When the school committee of any town or city shall 
have established continuation schools or courses of instruction for the 
education of young persons between fourteen and sixteen years of age 
who are T'egularly employed iw such city or town not less than six hours 
per day, said school committee may (with the consent of the board of 
education) require the attendance in such continuation schools or on 
such courses of instruction of every young person thereafter receiving 
an age and schooling certificate who is not otherwise receiving instruc- 
tion approved by the school committee as equivalent to that provided 
in schools established under the provisions of this act. The required 
attendance provided for in this act shall be at the rate of not less than 
four hours per week, and shall be between the hours of eight o'clock in 
the morning and six o'clock in the afternoon of any working day or 
days. The time spent by a child in a continuation school or class shall 
be reckoned within the time or number of hours that minors are per- 
mitted by law to work. 

Section 2. Continviation schools or courses of instruction, as pro- 
vided in section one of this act, shall, so long as they are approved by 
the state board of education as to organization, control, location, equip- 
ment, courses of study, qualification of teachers, methods of instruction, 
conditions of admission, employment of pupils and expenditure of the 
money, constitute approved continuation schools or courses of instruc- 
tion. Cities and towns maintaining such approved continuation schools 
or courses of instruction shall receive reimbursement from the common- 
wealth, as provided in section three of this act. 

Section 3. The commonwealth, in order to aid in the maintenance 



23 

of approved continuation schools or courses, shall, as provided in this 
act, pay annually from the treasury to cities and towns maintaining 
such schools or courses an amount equal to one half the sum, to be 
known as the net maintenance sum. Such net maintenance sum shall 
consist of the total sum raised by local taxation and expended for the 
maintenance of such a school, less the amount for the same period of 
tuition claims paid or unpaid and receipts from the work of pupils or 
the sale of products. 

Section 4. Any young person between fourteen and sixteen years 
of age who is regularly employed in a city or town other than that in 
which the said young person resides may attend a continuation school 
or courses of instruction, as provided in section one of this act, in the 
city or town in which such young person resides. Any young person 
attending a continuation school or courses of instruction, as hereinbefore 
described, in the city or town of such young person's residence in pref- 
erence to attending such school or courses of instruction in the city or 
town of such young person's employment, shall file or cause to be filed 
regularly, and not less often than once a month, with the superin- 
tendent, or his representative duly authorized in writing, of the city or 
town in which such young person is employed, a report of attendance 
certified by the superintendent, or his representative duly authorized in 
writing, of the city or town in which such young person is attending 
school: provided, however, that the filing of such certified report of 
attendance with the superintendent of a city or town in which attend- 
ance on continuation schools or courses of instruction as defined in 
section one of this act is not compulsory shall not be required. 

Section" 5. The employer of any young person between fourteen and 
sixteen years of age who is compelled by the provisions and regulations 
either of the school committee in the city or town in which such young 
person resides or of the school committee in the city or town in which 
such young person is employed to attend a continuation school or 
courses of instnxction as defined in section one of this act, shall cease 
forthAvith to employ such young person when notified in writing by the 
superintendent, or his representative duly authorized in writing, having 
jurisdiction over such young person's school attendance, that such 
young person is not attending school in accordance with the compulsory 
attendance regulations as defined in section one of this act. Any em- 
ployer who fails to comply with the provisions of this section shall be 
punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more t^an one hundred 
dollars for each offence. 

Section 6. The superintendent of schools having jurisdiction, or a 
person authorized by him in writing, may revoke the age and schooling 
certificate of any child who is required by the provisions of this act to 
attend a continuation school or courses, if such child fails to attend such 
school or courses as provided by this act. 

Section 7. This act shall take effect September first, nineteen hun- 
dred and thirteen. 



APPENDICES. 



Part II. 

APPENDICES 



Appendix A. 



AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION. 

The purpose of chapter 64 of the Kesolves of 1911 is to find a 
practical solution of the problem of further educating the 40,000 young- 
people between fourteen and seventeen years of age who are employed 
in Massachusetts. It is estimated that in addition to those at work 
there are 35,000 boys and girls of these ages who are not in school, 
and who are employed either intermittently or not at all. From the 
standpoint of the welfare of the State, the consideration of this group 
forms as important a problem in itself as does that of those who are 
regularly employed. The legislation of various countries is evidence 
of the fact that it is coming to be regarded as one of the duties of 
society to provide some form of continuation education for these young 
people. Several States in Germany, as well as other countries, have 
enacted laws which make a specified amount of school attendance up 
to the ages of seventeen or eighteen years compulsory. 

Any practical working out of a program of part-time education, 
without considerable adjustment of industry, will require the employ- 
ment of additional young people who would probably be drawn from 
two gTOups, a small number from those between fourteen and seventeen 
who are now in school, but a larger number from those who are neither 
in school nor at work. The State is thus confronted with the problem 
of ultimately educating all children up to seventeen years of age. This 
means that the school authorities must share in the responsibility of 
educating every child, not a selected few, and that the system of educa- 
tion must be made to meet not only the requirements of colleges and 
th4 professions, but the much more difficult requirements of citizenship, 
industry and business. 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has for a great many years 
shown its interest in and desire to promote any form of education 
which will make for the intelligence, efficiency, prosperity and happi- 
ness of her citizens and the fullest and best development of her in- 
dustries. The resolve authorizing the present investigation and re- 
port is but further evidence of the determination of the State that all 



28 

her young people shall receive an adequate training for citizenship and 
their life work. 

Within the time allowed, and with the amount of money appro- 
priated, it was not practicable to make a complete study of all the 
situations involved, and to submit recommendations as to practical 
programs of part-time schooling for the large number of young per- 
sons emj^loyed in connection with some 230 different industries in 
Massachusetts/ There have been no adequate means of presenting the 
entire problem in statistical detail. No records exist which give accu- 
rately the numbers that would be affected by possible legislation. 
There are no available records of the number of age and schooling cer- 
tificates annually granted. Serviceable records of the number of chil- 
dren in school under fourteen years of age nor of those either in or 
out of school over fourteen are not available." The accessible records 
of the Bureau of Statistics and of the district police regarding those 
employed are incomplete. From the beginning it was apparent that 
this report could not present the problem from the statistical stand- 
point as adequately as might be desired. 

On the other hand, it also became apparent that exact statistical 
information as to many features was not needed. It is a matter of 
common information that large numbers of young people leave school 
at or about fourteen years of age; that many of these have not com- 
pleted the elementary course of study; that they can be offered little 
or no systematic education in the industries in which they are em- 
ployed; that there is a widespread demand in the industries for better 
trained workers; and that the employment of the large majority of 
young persons is intermittent and involves a considerable amount 
of shiPting from one occupation to another. Hence, in the present 
study, chief consideration has been given to the following questions: 
(1) Is part-time schooling practicable in those industries employing 
children under seventeen years of age? (2) What methods of training 
can be adopted on a part-time basis to provide general and vocational 
instruction and thus benefit both the worker and the industry? (3) 
What are practicable programs to this end? 

To put into operation a complete program of part-time schooling 
will add about 80,000 to the number now attending public schools, and 
will greatly complicate the problem of public education. If part-time 
schools are to be successful, the facts as to the children and industries 
in each community contemplating the establishment of such schools 
must be available, and the kind of training necessary for success in 
business and for the well-being of the individual should be understood. 
Above all, there must be developed a body of teachers competent to 
deal with the problem in such a way that the pupils will learn through 
the study of real things, not abstractions. Such a program of education 

' Classification of industries, Bureau of Statistics, report on Manufactures, 1909. 
' Note on number between fourteen and seventeen years of age. Appendix A, p. 32. 



29 

means that the school must assume to a very great extent the responsi- 
bility for the welfare of young people while they are adjusting them- 
selves to the problems of adult life. 

For the details of such a program, comparatively little assistance 
can be derived from the experience of other countries. Germany has 
developed an extensive system of training for citizenship and industry, 
and it is beHeved that much of her prosperity has been due to her far- 
sighted policy in this direction. Examination will show, however, that 
the industrial and social conditions in Germany differ in marked de- 
gree from those found in the United States. The greater part of the 
vocational training developed in other countries is designed either to 
fit a selected few for leadership in highly organized industry, or to 
train for trades and industries which are still conducted largely on 
the basis of individual production. American industry is based on 
large scale, standard output, the use of remarkably ingenious machines 
and the ability of employers to utilize unskilled labor. 

In the present study, special attention has been given to those in- 
dustries of the Commonwealth which, as reported in the United States 
census, employ the largest number of young people. The metal trades 
were selected to represent a type of industry which requires considerable 
all-round skill, and one for which the schools have been successfully 
preparing in all-day, evening and part-time courses. These trades 
have a close connection with all others. Tbey are found in some form 
in nearly every city and in many towns in the Commonwealth. 

Cotton manufacturing, which is found in 144 of the 354 cities and 
towns of the State, was chosen to represent the textile industries be- 
cause it is the largest of these and because it employs young workers 
in largest numbers. It is an industry for which it is commonly sup- 
posed that little special preparation can be given, and therefore it has 
not been touched by day vocational schools. 

The manufacture of boots and shoes was selected because it employs 
the second largest number of children, and represents an industry which 
is more minutely subdivided and specialized than any other, having 
some 184 different operations. It is in part a highly skilled industry, 
and it is of the utmost importance that the industry be supplied with 
skilled and intelligent workmen. 

The printing and publishing business was chosen because it is semi- 
mechanical, and because certain phases of it require more general educa- 
tion of the type offered in the regular public schools than is demanded 
by any other industry. It stands twelfth in rank as to number of young 
people employed. 

Department stores were selected to represent the mercantile branch 
of industry, since, as. a whole, including messenger and errand service, 
it is next to the textile industry in the number of young people it 
employs. Exceptionally successful preparatory work on a part-time 
basis is already being done in connection with department stores, and 



30 

it was deemed advisable to discover to what extent such work is ca- 
pable of being adapted to other similar lines. Department stores present 
an educational problem in which girls are mainly concerned, and, as in 
the case of printing for boys, there is a close connection with regular 
school work, in that more general education of the type offered by the 
public schools is required than is necessary in most other branches of 
industry. 

Candy making was selected because it is a type of industry which 
requires little skill, and the economic condition of the workers, due to 
the low wage, is so poor that a type of training should be offered which 
would increase the earning power of those employed. The time for this 
training should be so arranged that it would not be necessary to reduce 
the wages during the period of instruction. Although the actual number 
of young workers engaged in candy making is comparatively small, 
yet the percentage of young employees is larger than in any other 
industry. 

Through the age and schooling certificates which have been granted 
in the several cities where investigations of young workers were made, 
it was possible to secure the names of persons who left school six years 
ago, together with the names of their parents and of their first em- 
ployers.* The present addresses of these young workers were ascertained 
tlirough city directories, and although a large proportion could not be 
traced, yet a sufficient number for the purposes of this study were found 
and interviewed in their homes with a view to finding out: (1) their pre- 
vious school record; (2) what proportion had left the industry in which 
they began their industrial career; (3) what proportion had remained 
in that industry; (4) of what value the six years had been in securing 
experience in the industry and their prospects for future advancement. 

In a similar way, boys and girls who had been out of school only one 
year were found and interviewed, to compare their experience with the 
experience of those who had been at work six years. Information was 
also collected for 2,462 mature workers in different trades, to ascertain 
the extent of their schooling, the time which it had taken to learn the 
occupation or trade followed, and the kind of experience which they 
had had in other occupations.^ 

Much time was spent in different manufacturing establishments for 
which the schools have previously given little training, to comi^are the 
kind of work done and the sort of skill required with the requirements 
in those industries and trades for which the schools have been success- 
fully preparing. Manufacturers, superintendents, foremen and work- 
men were interviewed, to ascertain their attitude toward training for 
the business, the kind of training needed and whether or not it would 
be possible to organize the work so that part time could be taken for 
schooling. With but two exceptions, employers showed the utmost 
courtesy to the agents of the Board who conducted this investigation. 

1 See Appendix C, p. 44. 2 See Appendix C, III, p. 62. 



31 

They gave unsparingly of their time during business hours, and they 
often gave whole evenings to conferences. In almost every ease where 
it was requested the agents were given free access to their plants for 
days at a time, and were allowed to inspect books and copy records. 
This was more than could reasonably have been expected when it was 
not required by law, and without the personal help on the part of 
manufacturers, superintendents, foremen, labor union officials and 
others, this report would not have been possible, for it was found that 
information obtained by correspondence alone was practically worth- 
less. Educators who have studied the problem abroad, who have or- 
ganized work in this country and have had successful trade and 
general educational experience were consulted. Special agents were 
employed to give expert opinion on technical points and to collect 
information regarding boys and girls in their relation to industry. 
It was found that the Department of Keseareh of the Women's Edu- 
cational and Industrial Union of Boston had already started the study 
of women and girls in the shoe industry, and all the material which 
they had collected was made available for the purposes of this study. 

The following method was used in making an estimate of the num- 
ber of children between fourteen and seventeen years of age who are 
neither in school nor at work. The total number of children in Massa- 
chusetts between five and seventeen years of age is estimated at 
712,000.^ The total number of children in all elementary and second- 
ary schools, both public and private, is 634,200.^ This includes all the 
children in school except those in higher institutions of learning, both 
those under five and those over seventeen. There are really less than 
634,200, then, in school between the ages of five and seventeen. As- 
suming, however, that this accurately represents the number, we find 
that there are 77,800 children between the ages of five and seventeen 
who are not in school. Of these, possibly 2 per cent, may be illegally 
employed under fourteen and another 2 per cent., through illness or 
other causes, may be at home. That is, there may be 3,100 under 
fourteen who are at home for one cause or another. That leaves 
74,700 between fourteen and seventeen who are not in school. It is 
estimated that only 40,000* of these are at work; 34,700, then, are 
neither at work nor in school. 

From the report of the State Board of Education for 1910, we find 
that there are in school 471,000 children between the ages of five and 
fifteen years. If we assume that there is an equal number of each age 
we should estimate the number between fourteen and fifteen as one 
tenth of the total, or 47,100. Certainly that is larger than the true 
number, for the number at the age of fourteen is much smaller than 

1 Total population from advance sheets, 1910 census of Massachusetts; 56 per cent, are under 
seventeen years of age. See page 559, 1905 census of Massachusetts. 

* Report of United States Commissioner of Educatioti, 1911. 

' Factory inspector's report, 1911, gives 24,000. It is estimated that this is two thirds of whole 
number. Inspectors do not go to all factories, so 4,000 were added on this account. 



32 

the number at five years, on account of the death rate and on account 
of the fact that large numbers leave school at fourteen. 

Now let us further assume that all these children between fourteen 
and fifteen are in the elementary schools. The number over fifteen in 
the elementary schools is a negligible proportion of the total. Con- 
sequently, these 47,000 children are many more than the total number 
between fourteen and seventeen in the elementary . schools. From the 
report of the United States Commissioner of Education we find that 
there are 63,000 children in the secondary schools. Surely not more 
than three fourths of these, or 47,000, could be between fourteen and 
seventeen years of age. Then the total number in school between four- 
teen and seventeen years of age would be 94,000. Now the estimated 
number in Massachusetts between fourteen and seventeen years of age 
is 167,000. There are, then, 73,000 between fourteen and seventeen 
who are not in school. Forty thousand only are at work, which leaves 
33,000 unaccounted for, the very lowest estimate of the number neither 
in school nor at work. 

This statement is further borne out by a comparison of the returns 
of truant officers with the number of age and schooling certificates 
granted. In 1911-12 there were 1,053 age and schooling certificates 
granted to children of fourteen for mills in Fall River, for which we 
have the reports of truant officers. Now in these same mills the truant 
officers report only 547 children from fourteen to fifteen years of age 
at work. That can mean only one thing. There are nearly as many 
children of fourteen who intended to work, who are now neither in 
school nor at work, as there are children at work. It cannot be sup- 
posed that they have gone into other trades, for the cotton mills take 
83 per cent, of all the young people at work in Fall River. 

The question might be raised, " Were not a number of certificates 
granted for summer employment ? " The mill men say that there is 
very little if any summer employment on account of the excessive heat, 
and of the 300 j'oung people visited who had taken out age and school- 
ing certificates not one had taken it out for summer employment. 
Furthermore, the fact that 54 per cent, take out age and schooling 
certificates before they are one month over fourteen does not indicate 
a large amount of summer employment. 



33 



Table I. — Showing manufacturing occupations in Massachusetts em- 
ploying over 100 children under seventeen. Comparison of years 
1904-09. 

Estimated from Massachusetts Census, 1905, Vol. II., and United States Census, advance sheet 

on manufacturing. 



Occupations. 



Estimated number 

of children 
under seventeen. 



Male. 



Fe- 
male. 



Total. 



Per cent, children 

ARE OP the 

TOTAL NUMBER 

EMPLOYED IN EACH 

INDUSTRY. 



Male. 



Fe- 
male. 



Total. 



Cotton mills. 



1904, 
1909, 



Woolen and worsted (including also felt 
goods and wool hats) . 

Boots and shoes (including cut stock and 
findings). 

Iron and steel, 1904, .... 
Foundry and machine shop, 1909, . 

I 1904, .... 



1904, 
1909, 
1904, 
1909, 



Confectionery, 



1909, 



Hemp, jute and flax, linen, rope and cordage, 1904 
Cordage and twine, jute and linen, 1909, 
Printers, lithographers and pressmen, 1904, 
Printing and publishing, 1909, 
Silkmill operatives, 1904, 
Silk and silk goods, including throwsters, 1909, 
Hosiery and knitting mill operatives, 1904, 
Hosiery and knit goods, 1909, 
Carpet factory, 1904, .... 
Carpets and rugs, other than rag, 1909, 
Box-makers, paper, 1904, 
Boxes, fancy and paper, 1909, 
Paper goods not elsewhere specified, 1909, 
■ 1904, 



Paper and wood pulp. 



1909, 



Jewelry, 



1904, 



1909, 

(1904, 
1909, 

Rubber factory operatives, 1904, 
Rubber boots and shoes, 1909, 



Tool and cutlery, \ 



3,699 

4,652 

1,463 

2,130 

1,239 

2,939 

386 

875 

23 

68 

182 

399 

120 



152 

83 
192 
224 
320 

50 

63 
117 
134 

33 
146 
174 

98 
234 
146 
198 



4,191 

4,869 

1,685 

2,762 

950 

2,064 

42 

60 

317 

866 

340 

438 

50 

162 

236 

554 

351 

489 

156 

230 

272 

365 

288 

225 

165 

137 

140 

23 

45 

200 

78 



7,890 
9,521 
3,148 
4,892 
2,189 
5,003 
428 
935 
340 
934 
522 
837 
170 
768 
340 
706 
434 
681 
380 
550 
322 
428 
405 
359 
198 
283 
314 
121 
279 
346 
276 



8.2 
8.2 
6.1 
6.8 
2.2 
5.1 
1.8 
1.8 
2.4 
4.0 
7.4 

11.4 
1.3 
4.7 
8.5 

11.8 
6.1 
4.5 

11.4 

10.1 
6.1 
4.8 
4.3 
1.9 
.4 
3.2 
3.4 
2.1 
3.8 
2.8 
4.5 



9.5 

10.1 

9.5 

12.9 

4.5 

7.4 

6.6 

8.1 

20.6 

20.9 

12.5 

15.3 

2.3 

3.3 

10.8 

21.2 

7.3 

8.8 

8.3 

9.0 

7.2 

13.9 

11.4 

3.7 

3.7 

6.7 

4.9 

10.1 

4.0 

4.8 

2.7 



9.1 

7.4 

9.2 

3.0 

5.6 

1.9 

1.9 

13.6 

14.5 

10.1 

12.1 

1.5 

4.2 

10.1 

16.2 

7.0 

6.6 

9.9 

9.1 

7.0 

10.1 

7.4 

2.7 

1.5 

4.2 

3.8 

2.5 

3.9 

3.6 

3.7 



34 



Table I. — Showing manujacluring occupations in Massachiisetts em- 
ploying over 100 children under seventeen, etc. — Con. 





Estimated number 


Per cent, children 
are of the 




OF 


CHILDREN 


TOTAL NUMBER 


Occupations. 


TTNDEB SEVENTEEN. 


employed in each 
industry. 




Male. 


Fe- 
male. 


Total. 


Male. 


Fe- 
male. 


Total. 


Bakers, 1904 


51 


14 


65 


1.1 


5.9 


1.3 


Bread and other bakery products, 1909, 


117 


159 


276 


2.2 


12.1 


4.0 


Furnishing goods, men's, 1909. .... 


62 


206 


268 


4.0 


7.5 


6.0 


Seamstresses and tailors and tailoresses, 1904, 


64 


316 


380 


- 


- 


- 


Clothing, m.en's, including shirts, 1909, 


39 


78 


117 


1.3 


1.6 


1.4 


Furniture, 1904 


93 


14 


107 


2.3 


3.1 


2.4 


Furniture and refrigerators, 1909, .... 


216 


48 


264 


3.1 


7.8 


3.4 


Electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies, 1909, 


171 


62 


233 


1.3 


1.8 


1.4 


Fancy articles not elsewhere specified, 1909, 


135 


87 


222 


4.9 


8.7 


5.7 


Electric light and power company employees, 1904, 


77 


93 


170 


2.6 


6.8 


3.9 


Wire workers, 1904, 


111 


56 


167 


2.1 


8.9 


2.8 


Optical goods, 1909, 


56 


120 


176 


3.4 


18.9 


7.3 


Musical instruments, pianos and organs and ma- 
terials, 1909. 


48 


119 


167 


1.1 


46.3 


3.7 


[1904 

Corsets, \ 

[1909 






9 
11 


89 
143 


98 
154 


10.5 
6.7 


7.3 
8.3 


7.5 
7 3 


Leather curriers and tanners, 1904, 






132 


24 


156 


1.6 


7.9 


1.8 


Lumber and timber products, 1909, 






120 


8 


128 


1.2 


2.5 


1.2 


Machinists, 1904, .... 






165 


- 


165 


.6 


- 


.6 


Printworks, 1904 






134 


30 


164 


6.2 


5.8 


6.1 


Bleachery and dye works, 1904, . 






90 


29 


119 


2.0 


5.6 


2.4 


Firearms and ammunition, 1909, . 






96 


8 


104 


4.6 


5.0 


4.5 


Bookbinders, 1904, 






26 


71 


97 


1.6 


3.6 


2.7 


Totals of industries employing 100 children J ^^^*' 
in 1904 or 1909. | ^g^g ^ 


9,031 
14,223 


9,911 
14,613 


18,942 

28,836 


3.5 


7.3 


4.8 


fl904 

Total of other industries, -1 

[1909,1 .... 


1,199 


655 


1,854 
1,854 


.6 


1.7 


.8 


f 1904, 
Total for all industries, -1 

[1909,1 . 






10,230 


10,566 


20,796 
30,690 


2.3 


6.1 


3.3 



1 Complete numbers are not given for all the industries for 1909. 



35 







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36 

A comparison of the figures found in columns 2 and 3, taken 
from the State census for 1905, shows that in the cities of Lynn, 
Chelsea, Haverhill, Fall Eiver and ]^ew Bedford there are fewer 
children at work under sixteen years of age than there are at 
work under fifteen years of age, which is, of course, impossible, 
as the figures under sixteen must include those fifteen and 
under. A comparison of the figures found in columns 7, 8, 9 
and 10 for the cities of Holyoke, Lynn, Fall River and New 
Bedford seems to show that there are many less children at 
work than there are children who are holding age and schooling 
certificates. In the case of Holyoke, only about half as many 
are found at work as there are holding age and schooling cer- 
tificates, of the group fourteen years old ; in Fall River, one- 
third as many; and in ISTew Bedford, half as many. In the 
city of Holyoke, the truant officer's returns are considered abso- 
lutely accurate and reliable, as the officer personally visited all 
the establishments noted in the records as employing young 
people leaving school at fourteen. 



37 



Appendix B . 



EXISTING MEANS FOR FURNISHING GENERAL AND VOCA- 
TIONAL EDUCATION IN THE COMMONWEALTH. 

1. The Public School the Agency for furnishing General 

Training. 

We turn naturally to the regular public school for the solution of 
every new problem of education that concerns the education of children 
and youths. Why should not the regular public school undertake the 
solution of this problem of vocational training? In the established 
public school system vi^e have ready to hand an extensive and expensive 
plant, an effective organization, and a body of trained, experienced in- 
structors. Do not economy and efficiency demand that the provision 
of necessary vocational training be committed to our existing plant 
and organization, to our picked body of instructors, enlarged and in- 
creased in numbers of course, to meet the larger task imposed? 

Experience now proves that the regular public schools cannot pro- 
vide requisite and adequate vocational training, however feasible and 
desirable this may, at first thought, appear. The public school cannot 
do this successfully for two reasons: first, because the public school 
has measurably failed, in giving efficient general education to many of 
the very boys and girls whom it is now proposed that the school train 
vocationally; and second, because it would be practically impossible to 
adapt the existing school organization and body of instructors to the 
requirements of the new problem. 

The statement of the obvious fact that the existing public school has 
failed to give the most effective education to boys and girls in im- 
mediate and most urgent need of vocational training must not be 
construed as equivalent to an assertion that the public school as an 
institution is a failure. On the contrary, the universal and overwhelm- 
ing evidence of the positive achievements of the public school, no less 
obvious than its failures, entitles it to rank as the most effective insti- 
tution of enlightenment and civilization yet established. The existing 
public school was not intended to provide vocational training in the 
sense in which such training is now rightly demanded. The typical 
school plant has always been designed, the organisation worked out, the 
teaching force selected, for the purpose of providing literary and gen- 
eral training. This purpose the public school fulfills, on the whole, 



38 

with success, even in the case of those boys and girls who go out incom- 
pletely educated, — at least from the standpoint of vocational training ; 
for, when due consideration is given to the handicaps of various kinds 
and degrees under which the school has labored, it must be acknowl- 
edged that the school has done well what it undertook to do. 

Why cannot the regular school be adapted to meet this new prob- 
lem, and, indeed, at least partially to anticipate it, through modified 
studies and methods of instruction introduced before the pupils who 
are to need vocational training reach fourteen years of age? Theo- 
retically, this is possible. Indeed, the early anticipation of the needs 
of that type of boy or girl who enters the industries as soon as the 
law allows may well be taken as one of the practical ideals toward 
which the regular school should strive. But the problem immediately 
before us, — a problem that is not likely to be materially changed for 
many years, however successfully the regular school may modify its 
present work for that type of pupil under consideration, — the prob- 
lem of giving definite and immediately efficient vocational training to 
boys and girls of fourteen, is radically different from the problem that 
the regular school is solving; it demands new and quite different or- 
ganization, equipment, subject-matter and methods of instruction, and, 
most of all, types of instructors. To compel the regular public school 
to undertake the solution of this new problem would be greatly to 
impair its efficiency in the kind of work that it has long carried on. 

But an organization, plant and equipment especially designed to 
serve in vocational education, and a corps of instructors especially 
chosen with a view to administer such training, will in time react most 
favorably on the regular pubUc school, and each type of education will 
reinforce the other. 

2. The Development and Place op the Vocational School. 

The report of the Douglas commission made in 1906, called attention 
in a forceful way to the fact that there was a great army of boys and 
girls between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, over 25,000 in number,^ 
employed in the industries who had gone out from the public schools 
unprepared for their work, and whose need of further training had 
been entirely ignored by our educational system. Massachusetts then 
for the first time manifested in an official way an interest in the prac- 
tical education of the adolescent for wage earning. Local communities 
were encouraged to establish vocational schools by the passage of a 
State law providing that where cities or towns furnish the building 
and equipment for such schools the State will bear one half the ex- 
pense of maintenance. The law, with subsequent amendments, is still 
the same in spirit, and under its provisions 35 different cities and 

» The Douglas commission investigated the condition of workers between fourteen and sixteen 
years of age; this investigation has dealt with those between fourteen and seventeen years of age. 



39 

towns have established some form of State-aided vocational school. 
Eleven have all-day schools, giving nine different lines of training for 
boys and four for girls; 3 have part-time schools; and 35 have evening 
courses. 

These schools must be regarded as way marks or milestones along 
the road by which the Commonwealth hopes finally to reach the goal 
of effective training for all boys and girls who go out to work at the 
age of fourteen. They have already contributed much to the solution 
of the problem of adjusting our education to new conditions in that 
they have demonstrated the value of vocational education, and have 
established beyond question the possibility of giving in a school train- 
ing which is of value to the worker in the shop. They have, however, 
dealt with less than 1,500 in day schools, less than 300 ^ in part-time 
schools and only 6,000 in evening courses. The failure of the day 
school to enroll large numbers of pupils can be attributed to at least 
three causes. Usually when parents are first approached on the sub- 
ject their attitude toward sending their children to such a school is 
favorable, and they honestly intend to do so, but when the children 
have actually left school and are already at work, it is found to be 
next to impossible to induce them or their parents to forego the full 
wage for the sake of a training whose value has yet to be proveA to 
them. The lack of co-operation between the regular public and the 
vocational schools has kept many of those who have not yet left the 
regular school in ignorance of the existence of an institution which 
provides vocational training. To this same lack of co-operation and 
sympathy is due the fact that not infrequently the knowledge of such 
a school is brought to the attention of pupils in the form of a threat 
that they will be sent to it as they would to a corrective institution. 
In many cases these schools are lacking in facilities to care for all who 
apply for admission. 

The largest contribution which the vocational school has made in 
helping to solve this problem is in developing methods of teaching the 
type of boy and girl under consideration. It has demonstrated that 
the children who do not remain in the regular schools are capable of 
being educated, and that it is possible to organize and conduct classes 
in such a way that those with a practical turn of mind can be taught 
the same things which they fail to grasp in the regular schools. While 
the common problem of all teaching, that of exciting the interest of the 
pupil and impressing upon him the value of right training, is ever 
present in this new form of school, the teachers have not been hampered 
by the traditions of generations, and have been able to use the pupil's 
daily experience in the home, in the shop, on the farm or on the street 
as a basis for teaching, and to illustrate the common every-day prob- 
lems of life. 

1 This number includes 131 boys in the Fitchburg part-time school who are of high-school 
grade. 



40 

To do this successfully, a new tyjDe of teacher is absolutely essen- 
tial.^ While these schools have been established barely three years, 
they have accomplished something in the line of contribution to the 
problem of developing the type of teachers and directors needed. In 
future, directors or principals of vocational schools should be selected 
partly because of their ability to train and develop teachers, and each 
person taken to train should be chosen with the thought in mind that 
he will, perhaps, ultimately become a principal or director. To a very 
gTeat extent the aU-day vocational school must continue to serve as a 
training center, not only for its own teachers, but for teachers in 
other schools as yet not established, and for teachers of part-time and 
evening courses, particularly the former. Evening classes deal with 
the more mature men and women, but the work developed in them 
has made a very imjDortant contribution to the solution of the problem 
under discussion. 

Starting work in a new line or industry with men and women in 
evening classes has been found very much easier because they are 
already employed, and need the supplementary instruction which will 
aid them in taking the next step forward in their work. In giving 
this instruction we learn what should be taught, and frequently discover 
men and women in the trade who are respected by their fellows for 
their greater knowledge of the business, and who are often capable 
of being trained for teaching in day schools. 

It has been apparent from the beginning of this study that the con- 
ditions shown to be true by the Douglas commission have remained 
practically unchanged in the last six years. This commission believed 
that the reg-ular day schools could not deal with the situation, and 
suggested the organization of vocational schools, with the hope that 
they would remedy the difficulty. The experience of Massachusetts 
shows that the all-day vocational school reaches as yet but a small per- 
centage of the children who drop out of the public school at fourteen 
years of age. It is clear that a system of training which is to reach 
40,000 or more boys and girls must allow many of them to work and to 
attend school at the same time. 

By those engaged in the work, the value of these schools has been 
measured largely on the basis of the contribution which they are 
making toward the solution of this problem which the State has been 
moving toward and must ultimately reach. The belief that part-time 
schooling is to be the means whereby most of this needed training shall 
be given, and that the time is ripe for a more vigorous effort to secure 
it, led to the passage of the resolve calling for this report, the greatest 
aim and hope of which is to reemphasize the need of reaching the 
wage earner through schools operated in co-operation with industry, 
and to point out some practical ways and means which seem to promise 
the greatest results in this effort. 

1 See Appendix E, p. 99. 



41 



3. Other Existing Agencies for furnishing Vocational Education. 
The other existing agencies which furnish vocational training reach 
less than 500 of the group at which this study has been primarily 
directed. These institutions may be divided into the five following 
classes: profit-making institutions, apprenticeship, corporation schools, 
philanthropic or semipublic schools and public vocational schools. 

1. Schools which are operated for profit, such as correspondence and 
private trade schools, register not less than 4,500 whose average age is 
above twenty-three.^ 

2. Apprenticeship is not now an efficient agency of vocational edu- 
cation, but as is pointed out under a discussion of apprenticeship on 
pages 84 to 87, Appendix D, it can probably be reorganized, at least 
in certain industries, and made to contribute its share to the solution 
of the problem of vocational education. 

3. Corporation schools are few in number. There are but two schools 
of this class in Massachusetts, and they reach about one half of one 
per. cent, of those employed under seventeen years of age. While 
these schools fill a need in large manufacturing plants, they are not 
capable of extension for the purposes of public instruction. The two 
schools which exist take very few under fifteen years of age, almost 
one half of their pupils being over seventeen years of age. Of a total of 
427 attending, only 35 are from fourteen to fifteen, 91 from fifteen to 
sixteen and 101 from sixteen to seventeen, while 200 are over seventeen 
years of age. 

4. Philanthropic or semipublic schools giving instruction at cost or 
less than cost are training 270 persons for entrance to industry in 
full-time day schools, and in evening courses, 2,652, or less than one 
half of one per cent, of the total group of 585,559 adult workers in 
Massachusetts. Such institutions are not capable of being developed 
to reach more than a few at the best, but they should continue to deal 
with the particular group which is now attending them. "With the 
exception, perhaps, of the work in salesmanship, started in 1906 by 
the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, it is doubtful if there 
is any work being conducted in these schools with which the public 
vocational schools are not prepared to deal. The methods developed 
in the Women's Educational and Industrial Union School for salesman- 
ship can be adapted to the regular public schools, and this institution 
can teach us much which is of value in making instruction efficient. 
The principles developed along the line of selling can be extended to 
the other departments of the store and to mercantile business in gen- 
eral. This phase of the problem is dealt with in detail in Appendix J. 

5. Three textile schools which are partly supported by the State and 
are free public vocational schools, with day, evening and part-time 

* With the exception of the private trade schools in relation to the shoe industry, these schools 
were not studied in detail. See Appendix D, p. 87. 



42 

courses, reach mainly adult workers. The day courses in the textile 
schools are designed to be of college grade. They have varying condi- 
tions for entrance, but the chief requirement is high-school graduation. 
The larger part of the work of these schools, however, is done through 
evening courses, in which instruction was given to 2,386 adult workers 
for the textile business in 1911-12. In New Bedford and Fall River 
the plants might be made available also for all-day and part-time 
courses for boys and girls who are obliged to enter industry at the age 
of fourteen, no matter what grade they may have completed before 
leaving the elementary school. 

Through evening instruction the vocational schools reach 5,057 adult 
workers, or less than one per cent, of all those employed in the State; 
1,265 are being prepared in all-day courses for entrance to industry, 
and only 263 of the 40,000 who have already entered industry are re- 
ceiving part-time instruction. Thus the larger part of the work done 
by existing public and semipublie institutions is in the instruction of 
mature workers in evening classes. It has been found that night schools 
cannot teach young people under seventeen or eighteen years of age, 
especially if they are in classes with older workers, without detriment 
to the instruction of both groups and an undue physical strain in the 
case of the younger workers. These classes should be continued for the 
older workers whom they are intended to serve, and should be developed 
in the cities and towns where they are now established and extended to 
those communities where they have not been started. 

The two remaining agencies, the all-day vocational school and the 
part-time school, are the smallest, both from the standpoint of the 
number of schools and the number of pupils, but they offer the largest 
hope for the solution of the problem. Four years of experience have 
shown that the all-day vocational school, taking pupils after the com- 
pulsory age, can at best reach only a small portion of the young people 
before they enter industry. The Douglas commission believed that if 
these schools were established, 80 per cent, of the children leaving 
school and going to work would profit by their instruction. Four 
years of experience seem to show that they can add less than 10 per 
cent, to the group which can be reached on an all-day basis. The all- 
day schools have been established in only 11 of the 354 cities and towns 
in the State, but they have demonstrated wherever they have been 
established that they can hold children who would otherwise leave school, 
that these children can be educated, that they are worth educating, 
though the other public schools have failed to reach them, and that 
they can give a training which enables their students to secure a more 
favorable entrance into trade and industry. There is no evidence to 
show that the other 343 cities and towns which have not established 
these schools do not in many cases also need them to meet the require- 
ments of their children and their industries; in fact, evidence enough 
has been collected during this investigation to show that they are 



43 

needed in every city studied where they do not now exist. It is firmly 
believed that these schools must be made the basis for dealing with 
the whole group not reached by the regnilar public schools. Each should 
form the nucleus of an institution to be so organized that it will give 
all kinds of needed instruction, whether part-time day, full-time day or 
evening school training to any individual in any trade or occupation.^ 
The day vocational school should be founded first to deal with the 
smaller selected gTOup, to develop courses of study and methods of in- 
struction, and to train teachers and directors. It should establish itself 
firmly in the community by co-operating with the regular elementary 
schools, and by reaching out, on a part-time co-operative basis with the 
industries, for the instruction of every boy and girl between the ages of 
fourteen and seventeen in day courses, and it should aim to hold them, 
from seventeen on, in evening courses. The failure of the vast majority 
of cities and towns in this State to start these schools is due to at least 
three causes, — the inability of some communities to raise enough money 
to support them, the adherence to traditional forms of education as 
the only thing worth while and the feeling that those who will not 
take it in the form in which it is now given are not worth educating, 
and lastly, to the inability of the majority of this class of people to 
know their needs and to make them known in an effective way. 

To make it practicable to develop part-time vocational courses on an 
efficient basis, vocational schools will have to be established in all com- 
munities where they are not now operated. In some places it may be 
necessary to allow by law the levying of a special tax above the present 
tax limit, such money to be used exclusively for the building, equipping 
and maintaining of these schools. They should continue to furnish all- 
day instruction in the different lines now taught for boys and girls, and 
should add to this part-time courses in these and any other lines needed 
in the community for the boys and girls who are not fortunate enough 
to be able to attend the all-day school. These schools must continue 
to make clear to the general public, especially to the public school 
teachers, the value of industrial education, and remove from it the 
stigma which has connected these schools with the State's corrective 
institutions for delinquents. So long as such head lines as the follow- 
ing appear in connection with the State's training schools for bad 
boys and girls, parents will not send their children to schools which 
bear the name " industrial." " Youths taught to make their own liv- 
ings. Prison atmosphere eliminated so far as possible at Industrial 
School at Shirley; each inmate learns a useful trade." Before this 
institution can be made to furnish industrial training, the name of the 
State-aided schools operated under chapter 471, Acts of 1911, should 
be changed by substituting some such words as " State-aided Vocational 
Schools," and be hereafter known under this name. 

1 See Appendix F, p. 124. 



44 



Appendix C . 



PREVIOUS EDUCATION AND PRESENT INDUSTRIAL STATUS 
OF SELECTED GROUPS OF WORKERS. 

I. Comparison of Groups studied. 

In order to determine how much education is acquired by young 
people who leave school at fourteen years of age to enter industry, 
and what their success in this field has been, various groups, totaling 
1,875 individuals, were selected to represent the whole group between 
the ages of fourteen and seventeen employed in Massachusetts. These 
young workers were studied by special agents who visited and talked 
with them in the home, on the street and in the factory. 

A group of 690 who left school at about fourteen years of age a 
year previous to the time of the investigation was studied in the home, 
the names being selected at random from the list of those to whom age 
and schooling certificates had been granted.^ The object of this study 
was to determine what their success in school had been, the number of 
years they had attended, the grade reached and their experience during 
the first year of industrial life. 

Another group of 433 who had left school six years before was 
studied in the same way. These young people were about twenty-one 
years of age, and had had practically the same school training, but five 
years' more experience in the industrial world. The success of this 
group was compared with that of those who had been at work one year. 

A group of 302 boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen who 
were found unemployed on the streets of Fall River and Lowell was 
studied to determine why they were not in school or at work, their 
school history and their industrial experience. 

Still another group of 450 apprentices, taking part-time or con- 
tinuation school work for five hours each week in the city of Cincin- 
nati, was studied, primarily to compare the kind of work done by 
these young men working in factories in which the management is 
making a very determined effort to maintain apprenticeship, with that 
done by young people in Massachusetts where no special effort is made 
to maintain such a system. 

In order to compare the young workers as to education, their present 
positions and probable future with the average man and woman in 

1 These cases were selected at random as it was thoua:ht a more representative group would 
be obtained in this way. See Thorndike " Mental and Social Measurements." 



45 

the different industries, 2,462 mature workers were studied, as fol- 
lows : — 

A group of 88 men in the machine industry. 

A group of 1,307 men and women in the textile industry. 

A group of 551 men and women in the boot and shoe industry. 

A group of 70 women in the confectionery industry. 

A group of 256 women in department stores. 

A group of 190 men and women in the printing and publishing business. 

The 1,875 cases of young workers under twenty-one years of age in 
the various industries in different cities and towns may be assumed to 
be fairly typical of the whole 40,000 between the ages of fourteen 
and seventeen which it is estimated are employed in industry in Massa- 
chusetts.^ Of these, 71 per cent, left school at fourteen years of age, 
23 per cent, at fifteen years of age, while but 4 per cent, attended 
school until they were sixteen years of age. Only 3.9 per cent, went 
beyond the elementary schools, while 28.1 per cent, did not pass be- 
yond the fifth gi-ade. It appears, therefore, that from one fourth to 
one third went hardly more than half way through the elementary 
school; nearly two thirds left before entering the eighth grade. 
Seventy-nine per cent, were one or more years behind the classes in 
which they started, so that only 21 per cent., or a little more than one 
fifth, were as far advanced at the time of leaving as an ideal scheme 
would contemplate. 

The following is a tabulation of the results of a study of 153 unem- 
ployed boys on the streets of Fall River : " — 



Table I. — Showing number and percentage of 153 unemployed hoys in 
Fall Biver who left school between ten and nineteen years of age. 







Age at which 


BOYS LEFT 


SCHOOL. 


Number who 
left school. 


Per cent. 


10 


years, 
years, 
years, 
years, 
years, 
years, 
years. 

Total, 








1 

13 
115 

16 
5 
2 
1 


.6 


13 








8.5 


14 








75 2 


15 








10.4 


16 








3 2 


17 








1 3 


18 








.6 














153 


99.8 













1 There is reason to believe that at least 2 per cent, left earlier than the compulsory attendance 
law of Massachusetts permits. These either went to work illegally or remained at home. The 
actual number of those unlawfully employed may be even larger than the figures in the tables 
hereafter given would indicate, in view of the fact that investigators had reason to believe that 
some of the children questioned were shrewd enough to overstate their ages. In the case of the 
boys who were studied on the street, it is probable that the truth was told in most cases, inasmuch 
as the investigators were men who could procure the confidence of those boys. 

^ In addition to these 153 boys, 47 otliers were found, 12 of whom had never attended school in 
this country, while 35 were still in school. 



46 



The above table shows that 9.1 per cent, of the group left school 
before reaching the age of fourteen, and that 84.3 per cent, left either 
before or as soon as the law allows. This study revealed a larger 
percentage who left school before fourteen years of age than was 
found in the study of any other selected group. Table XIV, page 57, 
shows a similar result from the study of 149 cases in Lowell. Eighty- 
six and five tenths per cent, left at fourteen or before, but only 2.7 
per cent, left before they were fourteen. 

Comparison of the foregoing may be made with the following sum- 
mary of a study of selected groups in the candy, boot and shoe and 
textile industries, the names of the workers having been chosen from 
the records of age and schooling certificates granted one and six years 
previous to the investigation : — 

Table II. — Showing percentage which left school between thirteen and 
eighteen years to enter various industries, with weighted average 
for whole group ^ {1,573 cases). ^ 



Age on leaving school. 



Candy 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Shoe 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Textile 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Total 

group (per 

cent.). 3 



13 years, 

14 years, 

15 years, 

16 years, 

17 years. 



1 See Table IV, p. 102 of Douglas report, 1906, on "Industrial and Technical Education." 

2 This number does not include the 302 unemployed boys interviewed in Lowell and Fall 
River. 

' In order to compare fairly these industries which vary widely in numbers employed a 
" weighted average " was used, the weighting being based on the total number employed in 
eash industry. 

" A weighted average is one whose constituent items have been multiplied by certain weights 
before being added, the sum thus obtained being divided by the sum of the weights instead of 
by the number of items." — King, "Elements of Statistical Method." 



The above table shows a more nearly normal gToup, 71 per cent, leav- 
ing at fourteen, while only 2 per cent, left earlier. 

Table III shows the grade last attended by the 153 unemployed boys 
interviewed on the streets of Fall River. 



47 



Table III. — Showing grade last attended by 153 unemployed hoys in 
Fall B'iver before leaving school. 



Grade left. 


Number 
leaving. 


Per cent. 


First, . 

Second, 

Third, 

Fourth, 

Fifth, . 

Sixth, 

Seventh, 

Eighth, 

Ninth, 

High school 


first 


year 


















1 

3 

9 

22 

11 

22 

34 

21 

23 

7 


.6 
1.9 

5.8 
14.3 

7.2 
14.3 
22.2 
13.7 
15.0 

4.5 


Total, 








153 


99.5 



The table shows that two thirds of these boys left school before com- 
pleting the seventh grade; one third went beyond the seventh grade. 

The following table shows the percentage which left each grade to 
enter the candy, shoe and textile industries : — 

Table IV. — Shotving percentage which left each grade to enter vari- 
ous industries, with, weighted average for luhole group ^ {1,573 
cases). 



Grade left. 



Candy 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Shoe 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Textile 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Total 

group (per 

cent.). 2 



Second, 

Third, . . : . 

Fourth, 

Fifth 

Sixth 

Seventh, 
Eighth, 

Ninth, .... 
High school, first year. 
High school, second year, 
Total, . 



1.1 
1.1 

10.4 
7.3 
16.7 
16.7 
24.1 
21.3 
1.3 



2.7 
2.2 
4.0 
14.2 
21.4 
21.1 
26.1 
5.7 
2.6 



.9 

2.1 

16.1 

19.2 

16.1 

21.9 

12.7 

9.2 

.9 

.7 



2.2 
11.4 
13.9 
15.5 
21.4 
15.8 
15.2 
2.6 
1.3 



100 



99.8 



1 See also Table V, p. 103 of the Douglas report, 1906, on "Industrial and Technical Educa- 
tion." 

2 Averages weighted in proportion to the numbers employed in each industry. 



48 



The above table shows that the largest percentage left the seventh 
grade, or approximately at fourteen years of age, while 43.6 per cent, 
left before the seventh grade. 

Table V shows the length of the period of retardation, together with 
the percentage of those so retarded in school, before entering the candy, 
shoe and textile industries. 



Table V. — Showing length of period of retardation and percentage 
of those so retarded entering different industries, with weighted 
average for whole group {1,573 cases). 



Period of retardation. 



Candy 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Shoe 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Textile 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Total 

group (per 

cent.). 1 



Ahead of or even with grade, 

One year behind, 

Two years behind. 

Three years behind. 

Four years behind, 

Five years behind, 

Six years behind. 



12.8 
25.8 
19.2 
21.4 
8.6 
8.6 
3.1 



28.1 

27.3 

15.9 

19.8 

6.3 

1.7 

1.3 



18.3 
16.8 
19.6 
22.0 
13.8 
8.4 
1.0 



1 A weighted average of these three industries. 

The above table seems to show that as a group those who enter the 
textile industry have made less progress in the grades and are more 
retarded than those entering any of the other industries studied. Candy 
making comes next, while those entering the boot and shoe industry 
remain in school longer and have progressed farther in the grades than 
those in the other groups. There are many laggards or retarded chil- 
dren entering the shoe business, but nothing like the number in the 
textile and candy industries. Of the children who were retarded or 
behind the grade in which they should have been for the number of 
years in attendance in school, 9.3 per cent, of the shoe workers were 
retarded four or more years, while 20.3 per cent, of the candy workers 
and 23.2 per cent, of those entering the textile industry were so re- 
tarded. Nearly one fourth of the young textile workers and more 
than one fifth of the candy workers were four or more years behind 
the class with which they started. 

Following is a table which shows the wage earned by those employed 
in various lines of work for one year, together with the percentage 
earning a given salary. 



49 



Table VI. — Showing percentage of those employed in different lines 
earning a given wage, with weighted average for whole group of 
those out of school one year^ {440 cases). 



Wage. 


Candy 
industry 
(under 18 

years) 
(per cent.). 2 


Shoe 
industry 
(percent.). 


Textile 
industry 
(per cent.). 


Salesman- 
ship (under 

18 years, 

girls) 

(percent.). 


Total 

group (per 

cent.). 3 


83 to $3.99 


36 


13 


3 


66 


20 


$4 to $4.99 








43 


18 


7 


22 


14 


$5 to $5.99 








14 


24 


4 


8 


10 


$6 to $6.99 








6 


17 


30 


2 


20 


$7 to S7.99 








1 


15 


18 


1 


13' 


$8 to $8.99 








- 


5 


17 


1 


10 


S9 to $9.99 








- 


5 


13 


- 


7 


$10 to $10.99. ! 






- 


■ 2 


4 


- 


3 


$11 to $11.99, ' 






- 


- 


3 


- 


2 


$12 to $12.99, 1 






- 


1 


- 


- 


- 


$13, . 






- 


- 


1 




In 



This table shows that of the group at work one year, 34 per cent, 
earn less than $5 a week; 53 per cent, earn from $5 to $9 a week; 
and 13 per cent, earn over $9 a week, a relatively large earning power 
for a group with little or no training. Unless employed in department 
stores or in some of the men's rooms in shoe factories, many of them' 
lack opportunity for advancement, and are kept on unskilled work, with 
no change, until they acquire a distaste for all work.* 

Table VII shows the earning power of a similar group sis years 
after leaving school. 

1 Compare Table IX, p. 112 of Douglas report, 1906, on "Industrial and Technical Educa- 
tion." 

2 Minimum wage report, p. 51. 

2 A weighted average of the5e four industries. 
^ See study of 149 boys in Lowell, p. 55. 



50 



Table VII. — Showing percentage of those employed in different lines 
earning a given wage, with weighted average for whole group of 
those out of school six years {489 cases). 



Wage. 


Candy 

industry (per 

cent.). I 


Shoe 

industry (per 

cent.). 


Textile 

industry (per 

cent.). 


Total 

group (per 

cent.).' 


$3 to $3.99 


16.1 


- 


.7 


1 


$4 to $4.99, 










24.9 


- 


1.3 


2 


$5 to $5 . 99, 










24.2 


2.0 


5.7 


6 


$6 to $6.99, 










17.0 


2.0 


13.0 


10 


$7 to $7.99, 










10.9 


2.0 


20.6 


14 


$8 to $8.99, 










3.4 


9.0 


20,8 


16 


$9 to $9.99, 










3.5 


6.0 


17.4 


13 


$10 to $10.99, 








- 


8.0 


13.7 


11 


$11 to $11.99, 








- 


5.3 


2.4 


3 


$12 to $12.99, 








- 


14.0 


3.0 


6 


$13 to $13.99, 








- 


6.0 


.3 


2 


$14 to $14.99, 








- 


3.3 


.7 


^2 


$15 to $15.99, 








- 


14.7 


.3 


5 


$16 to $16.99, 








- 


3.3 


.3 


1 


$17 to $17.99, 








- 


2.0 


- 


1 


S18 to $18.99, 








- 


6.6 


- 


2 


$19 to $19.99 








• - 


- 


.3 


- 


Over $20, 








- 


15.3 


- 


5 



1 Report on Minimum Wage, p. 51. 

2 A weighted average of the typical industries. 



The fact that 41.3 per cent, of those employed in the textile industry 
receive less than $8 a week accounts in large part for the idleness 
among boys from eighteen to twenty-one years of age. There is no 
system of training in the mill which fits those on low-paid, unskilled 
work for the skilled work of the mill. Only 21 per cent, of the textile 
workers who have been in the business six years earn $10 or more, and 
a negligible percentage of those who work in candy factories earn this 
amount. Only 21 per cent, of the group which has been employed in 
the shoe industry for six years, whose members are about twenty-one 
years old, earn less than $10 a week. Nineteen per cent., approxi- 
mately one fifth of the group six years in one of these trades, are 
earning less than $7 a week, 38 per cent, are earning more than $10, 
and 14 per cent, are earning more than $15, but it is the higher wage 
of the young shoe worker which pulls up this average. 



51 



The two tables which follow show the percentage of workers in the 
skilled and unskilled employments after one and six years in industry. 
The distinctions between " skilled " and " unskilled " are those employed 
in the respective industries. 



Table VIII. — Showing percentage in skilled and unskilled work in 
different industries after one year of employment, with weighted 
average for whole group {193 cases). 



Work. 



Candy 

industry (per 

cent.)- 



Shoe 

industry (per 

cent.)- 



Textile 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Total 

group (per 

cent.), i 



Skilled, 
Unskilled, 



52 



1 A weighted average of three typical industries. 

Table IX. — Showing percentage of workers in skilled and in unskilled 
work in different industries after six years of employment, with 
weighted average for whole group {489 cases). 



Work. 



Candy 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Shoe 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Textile 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Total 

group (per 

cent.). 1 



SkUled, 
Unskilled, 



1 A weighted average of the industries. 

There seems to be no relation between the length of time in the 
business and the kind of work done. Forty-sis per cent, of the group 
which had been at work one year were doing what is considered skilled 
work, 54 per cent, unskilled work. After six years in the trade the 
proportions were a little more than reversed ; 58 per cent, on skilled 
work, 42 per cent, on unskilled work; that is, six, years mean little, so 
far as promotion is concerned, very few, only 4 per cent., advancing 
from unskilled to skilled work during these years. Those who began 
on moderately skilled work have remained where they started, and 
most of those who started on unskilled work and did not leave it dur- 
ing the first year or so were still on it. Forty-six per cent, of the 
unskilled workers were advanced to skilled work before the end of 
their second year in the trade, that is, before they had ceased to belong 
to the fourteen to seventeen year old group. 

Table X shows the length of time necessary to advance from un- 
skilled to skilled work in certain industries, together with the per- 
centage of the group which required this time. 



b'l 



Table X. — Showing time required to advance to skilled work, and per- 
centage so advancing, for group out of school six years, with 
weighted average {4S9 cases). 



Years. 


Candy 

industry (per 

cent.)- 


Shoe 

industry (per 

cent.). 


Textile 

industry (per 

cent.). 


Total 

group (per 

cent.). 1 


No time required, 


37 


24 


9 


15 


Less than 1, 


15 


13 


19 


17 


1 to 2 • . 


13 


13 


16 


14 


2 to 3, 


13 


16 


19 


18 


3 to 4 


5 


15 


10 


11 


4 to 5, 


2 


12 


15 


14 


5 to 6, 


15 


7 


12 


11 



1 A weighted average. 

Little training is needed for the so-called " skilled work." Fifteen 
per cent, started on skilled work and 46 per cent, were on such work 
before the end of the second year. 

The following table shows increases over initial wages for the workers 
out of school six years in different industries : — 



Table XI. — Sho^ving percentage receiving specified increases in differ- 
ent industries, with weighted average for group out of school six 
years {489 cases). 



Increase. 



Candy Shoe 

industry (per industry (per 

cent.). cent.). 



Textile 

industry (per 

cent.). 



Weighted 

average (per 

cent.). 



$0, 

$1 to $3, 

$4 to $6, 

$7 to $9. 
SIO to $15, 
Over $16, 



Tables VIII and IX seem to indicate that there is little difference 
between the kind of work done by the young people who have been 
six years in the trade and that done by those who have been at work 
one or two years. There is, however, a great difference in wage. As 
shown by the above table, 31 per cent., nearly one third, increased 
their wage $7 or more; 43 per cent, increased it from $4 to $6 beyond 
the initial wage ; only 2 per cent, had no increase, or dropped below 



53 

the wage first earned. This increase, since it does not usually indicate 
employment on a higher grade of work, must mean increase in speed 
of production or the ability to turn out work rapidly. 

Boys and girls are not hired with reference to the possibility of 
their future advancement in the industry, and there is no system of 
training which has in view their largest possible development in the 
line which they enter. The shop or factory in which they first find 
employment is a matter of chance, and the organization of most of 
the plants is such that their immediate power and productiveness are 
the chief concerns of the foreman, and superintendent. If such atten- 
tion is given to the training of young workers, it is done at the expense 
of the productiveness of the department in which they are employed. 

The machine shops are practically the only plants studied which still 
try to maintain a system of training. Even there, unless such work is 
done in a department especially organized to deal with the problem 
of teaching, investigation shows that in almost every case the system 
has failed, and that the young workers in this industry are as much 
in need of training, help and guidance as those in the other groups.^ 

Young people are kept on one machine, first, because the immediate 
demands of the business require it; foremen and superintendents h^ave 
not time to give instruction; machines are too expensive and floor space 
too valuable to curtail production for the sake of teaching the worker; 
second, young workers when allowed to specialize, can make much 
more money on the special job than is possible under a system which 
would give them breadth of training; hence they break apprenticeship 
agreements, and manufacturers are loath to give much time to train- 
ing young workers when they are likely to leave at any time and go 
to some other plant. 

While the worker in the shoe industry makes the largest wage, it is 
believed that this is not without its disadvantages, as it is estimated 
that the young shoe worker can reach the maximum speed and effi- 
cienc}'^ at nineteen or younger. This is likely to mean a loss of am- 
bition and in many cases a physical breakdown, as it is estimated that 
in operating certain machines at the maximum speed a person's in- 
dustrial life as a high wage earner will be little over five years. After 
that comes the continuous heart-breaking drop to less skilled work 
and lower wages. Low wages in textiles often mean the same thing. 
It was not at all unusual in the experience of the investigators to find 
a young girl who had been running eight to ten looms, and making 
over $10 a week, who had been obliged to drop back into less arduous 
work in three or four years.. This is a trial which makes them bitter 
as no other experience seems to do. A larger proportion of all-round 
work and a wage less definitely indicating speeding would be an augury 
for a better industrial future for all young workers. 

I See p. 65. 



54 

Monotonous work, especially that which requires great speed and 
uses up nervous energy, should not be done for any long period by 
young people under eighteen years of age, and the years up to this 
time should be spent in physical and mental upbuilding in prepara- 
tion for the years of industrial life to come. Doing such work at an 
early age requires either too much physical strength or else is of such 
a nature that the young person becomes discouraged by the continued 
repetition of the task and acquires a distaste for all work. Boys and 
girls under eighteen years of age require a constant change of occu- 
pation, and up to within a comparatively few years industry has 
always been so organized that young workers were constantly changed 
from one kind of work to another. On the farm they had a variety 
of different occupations during each day, and where boys were appren- 
ticed they acted as helpers to the master, doing a variety of work 
during the week; whereas industry is now so organized that the work 
of the young person is very frequently a monotonous repetition of the 
same task. Employers are complaining that j^oung people no longer 
want to work, without stopping to realize that the kind of work they 
wish done is very often in direct opposition to the physical require- 
ments of the child during these years; also, that it would be better, 
not only for their business but for the welfare of the children, to see 
that the tasks are changed occasionally rather than to change young 
help so often. The experience of the boys studied in Lowell ^ is be- 
lieved to be typical of hundreds of others who are now shifting from 
factory to factory merely to get a change in surroundings if not in 
occupation. This is not only the worst possible thing for these young 
people but it is believed to be more expensive to their employers than 
is generally realized. It is costing more in actual dollars than would 
be involved in the adoption of a plan which would provide for an 
occasional change from one department to another in the mill. 

Young people in department stores are not, nominally, as much in 
need of part-time schooling as those employed in factories and mills. 
They do not leave school in large numbers at fourteen; more than a 
third of their group enters the high school, but this education does 
not fit them for department store work. They have not the elements 
of an education, — reading, writing and arithmetic. Furthermore, the 
complete disappearance of the old apprenticeship system leaves them 
Avithout any way of learning their trade except as it is possible for 
them to pick it up. This haphazard method does not make enough 
leaders to satisfy the demands of the industry. While these boys and 
girls go further in school, they are not able to use their education in 
a practical waj', and they are as much in need of part-time education 
as any other group. 

For further discussion see Appendix G, pp. 147-159. 

I See p. 55. 



55 



II. Study op 302 Unemployed Boys (149 in Lowell and 153 in 

Fall River). 
The desire to determine, if possible, why such a large number of 
boys is idle while the mills need help, and the possibility of getting 
these boys to take the places of those who would leave the mills to 
attend a possible part-time school, led to the study of 302 boys who 
were found idle on the streets of Fall River and Lowell. The findings 
in both cities were practically the same, and this group was found to 
be but slightly different from those studied through the age and school- 
ing certificates. 

1. For the most part, these boys were born in the United States. 
Eighty-five per cent, of the Lowell group and 88 per cent, of the 
Fall River group were born in this country. Practically the same 
result was found in studying the nativity of the other gi-oups. 

2. A larger percentage of this group left school at fourteen years 
of age or earlier; 86,5 per cent., as against 73 per cent, of those 
studied through the age and schooling certificates. In Lowell, 83.8 
per cent, left at fourteen years of age; 2.7 per cent, left at thirteen 
years. In Fall River, a smaller per cent., 75.2, left at fourteen yeaijs, 
but 19,1 per cent, left before they were fourteen. After comparing 
methods of granting age and schooling certificates in the cities, one 
would expect to find a larger proportion leaving illegally in the latter 
place. 

3. This group is typical as to the grades attained. The largest per 
cent, left in the seventh year. In Lowell, 33.5 per cent, left during 
this year; in Fall River, 22.2 per cent, left in the seventh year. While 
in Lowell a larger number left in the seventh year, fewer left before 
the seventh year than in Fall River, 30.1 per cent, in Lowell as against 
44.1 per cent, in FaU River. Of the total group studied from the age 
and schooling certificates,^ 21.4 per cent, left in the seventh year and 43.6 
per cent, left before the seventh year. 

4. In Fall River, 33.2 per cent, went beyond the seventh gTade; in 
Lowell, 36.2 per cent, went beyond this grade, but in neither case were 
they any better fitted to cope with the real problems of life than they 
would have been had they left school earlier. 

5. The information collected as to shifting from factory to factory 
and the length of time out of employment cannot be compared with 
that gathered for the group studied from the age and schooling cer- 
tificates, because information on these points was not collected for the 
other groups. This study shows a tremendous amount of shifting and 
idleness, and probably the same thing would be found to be true of 
the other group. 

6. These boys were on the streets because of (1) lack of school 
training and fitness for a vocation; (2) lack of system in the mills 

1 See Table IV, p. 47 of Appendix C. 



56 

which would train those on the unskilled job for the skilled; (3) 
monotonous employment on the same kind of Avork; (4) failure of the 
work of the regular public schools to appeal to them. 

7. It was the opinion of the investigator that these boys were typical 
of the average boy found in a city school system; that they were sus- 
ceptible to the influence of a school of the right type; that, if prop- 
erly directed, they could be held at work' and be given school training 
instead of growing up in idleness. 

The groups studied in Lowell and Fall River did not include the 
successful worker found in the studies of those who entered the differ- 
ent industries one and six years ago ; otherwise the study shows a fairly 
prevalent condition among young workers. The Fall River study was 
made under normal conditions, while the study in LoweU was made 
during a time of unsettled labor conditions; but the results in both 
cities seem to show the same things to be true, and the Lowell study 
is presented in some detail to represent the conditions found in both 
cities. This study was not aimed at any particular industry but at 
the community as a whole. In all of the other investigations the names 
were taken from the age and schooling certificates granted to young 
people who had entered the industry which was to be studied. In the 
case of the investigation in Lowell, the information was collected from 
boys on the street by an investigator with a large and very successful 
exi^erience in dealing with boys, who was able to get their confidence 
and was especially well qualified to compare these boys with those 
ordinarily found in the public, schools. In the other studies the young 
people were visited in their homes, and since the names were taken 
from the age and schooling certificates, the investigators had no means 
of knowing what type of person would be met or what information 
would be obtained, while in the Lowell study it was expected to find 
those who were unemployed and more or less shifting; so, in this way, 
the group might be considered a selected one. The investigator visited 
pool rooms, shoe-shining " parlors," back alleys and other places where- 
ever boys were in sight. Those interviewed are a fair representation 
of a large number of the boys in Lowell. In this wajj^, 149 boys were 
approached by the investigator, and, with a single exception, questions 
were answered willingly and courteously. The answers to the ques- 
tions which were asked have been tabulated and are summarized in 
the tables which follow. Of the 149 boys, all but 15, or 10 per cent., 
had worked or were working in a mill just before the study was made.^ 
Ninety per cent, of the boys, therefore, were intimately associated with 
the mill industry. The other 15 boys had last worked as foUows: 
7 in a shoe factory, 1 with the telegraph company, 4 in stores, 2 in 
a wire factory and 1 with a show. 

1 Thia study was made during the first week of the Lowell strike and for this reason more boj'a 
were found on the street than would otherwise have been the case; but the experience of all 
the boys, whether they had been working just previous to the strike or not, was so similar that 
it is believed to represent the true state of affairs. 



57 



Table XII. — Showing hirthplaces of 149 unemployed hoys in Lowell. 



BlRTHPL.iCE. 



Per cent. 




United States 

Lowell 

Other places in United States, 
Outside United States, 

Total 



Table XIII. — Showing parentage of 149 unemployed hoys in Lotvell. 



PjVRENTAGE. 



Number. 



Per cent. 



English, 

French-Canadian, 

Irish, . 

American, . 

Scotch, 

German, 

Swede, 

Portuguese, 

Polish, 

Hebrew, 

Italian, 

Total, . 



19 


12.6 


36 


24.1 


64 


42.9 


8 


5.3 


3 


2.0 


2 


1.3 


2 


1.3 


6 


4.0 


6 


4.0 


2 


1.2 


1 


.6 



149 



Table XII shows that practically 85 per cent, of the boys were 
American born and that about 72 per cent, were born in Lowell. Table 
XIII, however, shows a variety of nationalities, with the Irish, French- 
Canadian and English in the lead. With the exception of 5.3 per cent., 
tlie parents of these boys were foreign born. 



Table XIV. - 


— Shoicing age on leaving school 
in Lowell. 


of 149 unem 


ployed hoys 


Age. 


Number. 


Per cent. 




4 
125 
16 

4- 


2.7 




83.8 




10.7 


«. 


2.7 








Total, . 


149 


99.9 









Table XV. 



58 



Showing grade attained in scJiool at time of leaving by 
149 unemployed hoys in Lowell. 



Grade. 



Number. 


Per cent. 


3 


2.0 


3 


2.0 


17 


11.4 


22 


14.7 


50 


33.5 


25 


16.8 


24 


16.1 


5 


3.3 



Third, 
Fourth, 
Fifth, . 
Sixth, 
Seventh, 
Eighth, 
Ninth, 
Tenth, i 
Total, 



149 



99.5 



1 First year of high school. 

Table XIV confirms the statement so often heard that the majority 
of boys leave school just as soon as the law allows them to do so. This 
table shows that about 84 per cent, left school at the age of fourteen 
years, while 87 per cent, left school before the age of fifteen. 

Table XV shows the grades attained before the boys left school. 
Ninety-five, or 63.6 per cent., left before the eighth grade; 120, or 
80.4 per cent., before the ninth grade. 



Table XVI. — Showing ages at the time of the investigation of 149 
unemployed hoys in Lowell. 



Number. 



Per cent. 



14 to 15 years, 

15 to 16 years, 

16 to 17 years, 

17 to 18 years, 

18 to 19 years, 

19 to 20 years. 
Over 20 years. 

Total, . 



149 



15.4 
32.8 
25.5 
10.7 
10.0 
4.6 
.5 



Table XVI shows the ages of the boys at the time of the investiga- 
tion. Eighty-four and four tenths per cent, were between the ages 
of fourteen and eighteen years. 



59 



Table XVII. — Showing number of years since beginning vjork of 149 
unemployed boys in Lowell. 



Number of tears. 



Per cent. 




Less than 1 year, 

1 to 2 years, 

2 to 3 years, 

3 to 4 years, 

4 to 5 years, 

5 to 6 years, 

6 to 7 years. 
Never worked, . 

Total, . 



Table XVIII. — Showing the lowest, highest and average initial sal- 
ary; the lowest, highest and average salary last received; tJ^e 
average increase and per cent, of increase of average salary last 
received over average initial salaries for boys grouped according 
to length of service {weekly wage), of 149 cases {unemployed boys 
in Lowell). 



Number of tears 
of service. 



Lowest 
initial 



Highest 
initial 
salary. 



Average 
initial 
salary. 



Lowest 
salary 
last re- 
ceived. 



Highest 



last re- 
ceived. 



Average 
salary 
last re- 
ceived. 



Average 

in-!j 

crease. 



Per 

cent, of 
increase 

in 
average 
salary. 



Less than 1 year, 

1 to 2 years, . 

2 to 3 years, . 

3 to 4 years, . 

4 to 5 years, . 

5 to 6 years, . 

6 to 7 years, . 



$0 78 
3 00 
1 SO 
3 00 

3 75 
5 40 

4 05 



S7 22 
7 00 
50 
9 
9 75 
5 40 
4 05 



34 29 
4 52 

4 2 

5 49 

4 (4 

5 40 
4 05 



$3 00 
3 00 

3 50 

4 47 

5 70 

6 50 
10 00 



S6 60 
8 50 
8 00 
8 50 

11 50 
6 50 

10 00 



S4 68 
5 05 

5 70 

6 31 
•7 48 

6 50 
10 00 



$0 39 
53 

1 45 
82 

2 54 
1 10 
5 95 



9.0 
11.7 
34.1 
14.9 
51.4 
20.3 
14.7 



The data of the foregoing tables may be summarized as follows ; 



Average length of service (years), . 
Average initial salary (weekly wage), 
Average salary last received (weekly wage). 
Average increase in salary (weekly wage), 
Increase in salary (weekly wage) (per cent.), 



1.7 

$4 47 

$5 51 

$1 04 

23.2 



60 



There seems to be no consistent relation between the number of years 
of service and the increase in salary. Table XVIII shows that the 
one boy who had worked from six to seven years had increased his 
initial salary 14.7 per cent.; but because he is the only boy in this 
gToup, little weight is attached to his case. 

Tables XIV to XVIIl inclusive reveal conditions as observed by the 
investigator. These boys are, for the most part, children of foreign 
parentage who go into the mills as soon as they are fourteen or fifteen 
years old. Few of them have completed the seventh grade of the gram- 
mar school. They begin work in whatever mill they happen to find 
something to do, generally as sweepers, bobbin boys or creelers. They 
earn a fair wage for boys of these ages, but because the work requires 
little skill or training, it soon becomes monotonous, and after three or 
four months a boy " jacks up " (gives up his job), and begins again in 
another mill, perhaps at the same kind of work. Nearly all the boys 
stated that it took them from thirtj^ minutes to eight hours to learn to 
do their work. Thus a boy goes from one mill to another, learning no 
particular trade and acquiring not even a small degree of skill in oper- 
ating a machine. At the end of three or four years his earning power 
has increased but slightly; he sees no opportunity ahead, and he gives 
up the mill for anything else which he can find. 

The followmg illustrations are typical of most of these boys : — 

No. 1. — Boy born in Lowell; left school at fourteen years of age; was 
in the seventh grade; attended school eight years. 



Kind op job (mill). 


Length of service. 


Wage. 


1. Cleaner, 

2. Sweeper, . . , 

Out of work two weeks, 

3. Sweeper, 


5 weeks 

2 weeks 

4 weeks, ..... 


$2 87 
4 42 

4 12 



No. 2. — Boy bom in Lowell ; left school at fourteen years ; in eighth 
grade; attended school nine years. 



Kind of job (mill). 


Length of service. 


Wage. 


1. Creeler 

2. Sweeper, 

3. Sweeper, 

4. Creeler, 


8 months 

2 months, 

4 months, 

3 months, 


S3 92 
4 97 
4 59 
4 86 



No. 3. 



61 



Kind of job (mill). 



Length of service. 



Wage. 



1. Backboy 

2. Doffer, 

3. Riding horses for blacksmith, 

4. Twister, 

5. Spare hand, 

6. Sweeper, ....... 

7. Doffer 

8. Sweeper, 

9. Cleaner, ...... 1 

10. Backboy, J 



3 months, 
2 months, 
2 months, 
2 months, 
Xyi years, 
2 months, 
2 months, 

1 year, 

2 months. 



$4 00 

3 00 to 4 00 

4 00 
4 00 
6 00 
4 00 
4 00 

4 00 to 5 00 

4 00 to 5 00 



This boy was born in Lowell, and left school at fourteen years, in the 
seventh grade. At each mill he " jacked up " because he did not like the 
work. In little more than three and one half years this boy had had ten 
different jobs, an average of four and one half months on each. He 
started as backboy at a wage approximately the same as that received on 
his last job, in exactly the same capacity in which he began. 

Bo. 4. — Boy born in Lowell ; left school at fourteen years, in seventh 
grade; attended school nine years. 



Kind of job (mill). 


Length of service. 


Wage. 


1. Creeler 

2. Bobbin boy, 

3. Riding horses for blacksmith, 

4. Spare hand, weaving shed, .... 

5. Stitcher, 

6. Bobbin boy, . ^ 


6 months, 

1 year, 

1 year, 

2 months, 

4 months, . ... 

2 months, 


S4 06 
6 30 

5 00 

6 18 

6 84 

7 72 



In reply to the question, "Do you want to learn a trade?" about 
50 per cent, of the boys answered, " Yes ; " the others gave no definite 
reply. With few exceptions, the answers given by all the boys showed 
that little thought had ever been spent upon the matter of preparing 
for a definite kind of work in the form of a trade. 

The boys who were out of work previous to the strike said that they 
had had no chance ta learn a trade, and that the mills offer the only 
opportunity for work. When it was suggested that the Lowell Industrial 
School might offer some assistance, several replied that they had made 
application for admission to the school, but had been refused because 



62 



there was already a waiting list. The evening vocational school was 
closed against them either because they were too young or because 
they were not engaged in the particular trade or a trade related to 
the one which they wished to study. Several of the older boys stated 
that they could not afford to attend a day school because they were 
obliged to contribute to the family income; but they were anxious to 
learn some trade. To some of these boys the investigator described 
a " part-time " school and asked their opinion of it. The one objection 
seemed to be that they could not afford to be deprived of a week's 
salary on alternate weeks. Some boys, however, thought that if they 
could be regularly employed during alternate weeks at a fair salary, 
at the end of a year they would have earned more than they are earning 
under present conditions, because of the intervals between the frequent 
changes in positions, which reduce the yearly earnings. 

Here, then, is a group of boys who leave the grammar school as 
soon as the law allows them to do so, poorly equipped, yet not qualified 
by age and occupation to profit by attending the evening vocational 
school, and no other opportunity for further training is open to them. 



Table XIX. — Showing evening school attendance of 149 unemployed 
hoys studied in Lowell. 



School attended. 



Per cent. 




Evening grammar school, 
Evening high school, . 
Neither, 
Total, . 



The above table shows the number of boys in this group who at- 
tended an evening school during the past winter. Although nearly 
40 per cent, of them appear to have registered for some sort of even- 
ing school work, only two boys attended during the entire season. 
Without exception, those boys who registered in the evening high 
school began the study of bookkeeping, but soon dropped it because 
it had not the remotest relation to the work which they were doing 
for a living; yet it was the only kind of training open to them. 



III. Study of 2,462 Adult Workers. 
The information collected from most of these workers was obtained 
principally through blanks filled out by the workers themselves in the 
following lines: machine shops, cotton mills, boot and shoe shops, con- 
fectionery establishments, department stores, printing and publishing 
establishments. This method did not prove to be a satisfactory means 



63 

of getting detailed information, but it showed the following things 
to be true : — 

1. That foremen and superintendents have received a training which 
gives them a good general knowledge of the business as a whole, or at 
least of the work of one department; that they had either received 
this training before the work became so highly specialized as it is 
to-day, or they had changed from one shop to another to get general 
experience, or some one had taken a special interest in them and had 
given them help and encouragement. 

2. That the specialized worker who had received the broadest train- 
ing is in the group getting the highest wage, and is considered the 
most valuable maoa by employers. 

3. That in the vast majority of eases the specialized worker had 
taken from one to six months to learn to do one operation or to run 
a special machine. 

4. That it is a rare exception to find a specialized worker who can 
do anything other than the specialized work on which he is employed. 

5. That where boot and shoe and machine shops are located near 
textile centers, the vast majority of their workers had started their 
industrial careers in the textile business. , 

6. That large numbers of these older workers came to this country 
as men and women; that they are to-day practically illiterate, and 
that, because of this, they are handicapped so far as promotion in the 
business is concerned. 

7. That those workers who had an opinion on the value of a wider 
knowledge of the work, including the operations which precede and 
succeed their own, expressed themselves as being in favor of such 
training, and stated that it would mean advancement in the business 
for them. 

The following is a summary of a study made of a group of men 
in one machine shop doing a manufacturing business on a large scale 
but with a low-grade product. It does not fairly represent the skill 
required nor the wage in the business as a whole, but it is a sample 
of the other studies which were made. The primary object of the 
study was to determine, if possible, how many of these men began 
their industrial life in the textile business, why they changed, and 
what their success in the machine industry had been. 

Through the courtesy of the superintendent, the investigator was 
permitted to interview the men at their work, taking as much time 
as seemed reasonable. Three departments of the shop were visited and 
88 men were interviewed. The purpose of these interviews was to find 
out if the previous experience of these men had been at all similar to 
that of the boys investigated on the street, and if so what their success 
in industry had been. The purpose of the investigation was briefly ex- 
plained to each man, and in all eases questions were answered willingly 



64 



and courteously. Every man showed a disposition to do anything in his 
power to make the future of the boys who must take their places 
brighter than their own. 

Most of these men called themselves machinists, yet few claimed to 
have the qualifications and experience which this name implies. With 
few exceptions, each man had been hired to operate a particular ma- 
chine or to do a particular kind of work, the nature of which had not 
been changed since employment began. 

The length of service in the present occupation varied from a few 
months to twenty-five years. Of the 88 men interviewed, 69, or 78.4 
per cent., had worked in a cotton mill before entering the machine 
shop ; 19, or 21.6 per cent., had not. Their reasons for leaving the mill, 
their wages in mill and shop, and their mill records are shown in the 
three tables below : — 



Table XX. — Showing reasons for leaving mill. 



Reason for leaving mill. 



Per cent. 




Wanted to learn a trade, 
Did not like the work, 
No chance to advance, 
Discharged, 
Forced out (strike), . 
Moved away. 
Sickness, . 
No answer. 
Total, . 



100.0 



Table XXI. — Showing average wage of workers who began in ma- 
chine shop. 



Number op years in machine shop. 



Number of 
men. 



Average 
■weekly pay. 



2 years, 

3 years, 

4 years, 

5 years, 
7 years, 
9 years, 

10 years, 
15 years, 
20 years. 



S8 10 
10 26 
10 SO 

10 26 

11 34 
10 80 
10 26 
21 60 

_i 



1 Would not tell. 



65 



Table XXII, — Showing previous record of men now in machine shop. 



Number of years in machine 

SHOP. 



Number of 
men. 



Average time 
in mill. 



Average 
pay in mill 
per week. 



Average pay 
in shop. 



Less than 1 year, 

2 years, 

3 years, 

4 years, 

5 years, 

6 years, 

7 years, 

8 years, 

9 years, 
10 j'ears, 
12 j-ears, 

14 years, 

15 years, 

16 years, 

17 years, 

18 years, 
20 years, 
25 years, 



1 y. 9 m. 

1 y. 8 m. 

4 y. 6 m. 

1 y. Cm. 

2 y. m. 

1 y. 1 m. 

y. 9 m. 

2 y. 10 m. 

1 y. 8 m. 
4 y. m. 

2 y. 5 m. 

1 y. m. 
y. 6 m. 

2 y. 6 m. 

y. 11 m. 

2 y. 8 m. 

3 y. m. 

1 y. 6 m. 



S6 00 

7 39 

8 06 

7 83 

5 87 

8 25 

6 45 
6 13 

10 00 
5 50 

5 36 

6 20 
4 50 
3 00 
6 60 

6 30 

7 50 
6 30 



$9 05 
9 50 
9 30 

10 12 

11 42 
9 95 

10 05 

11 00 

12 25 

10 88 

11 00 

11 67 

10 00 
I 

12 50 
9 70 

10 80 

11 90 
31 50 



The tabulation of information obtained from these men shows that 
their experience in the mill gave them no preparation for the machine 
industry, so they had to be employed as specialists on work requiring 
comparatively little, if any, more skill than was required in the mill. 
The wages which these men are now receiving would seem to leave no 
doubt that a system of training begun at fourteen years would have 
enabled them to reach very much better positions in the machine shop 
after leaving the mill, and would have enabled them to do at least as 
well, if not better, than they are now doing had they remained in the 
textile business. 

IV. Conditions in Machine Shops. 

The young people who go to work in machine shops were not studied 
as much in detail as were the workers in the candy, textile and boot and 
shoe industries, but there is evidence to show that the age at which 
they leave school and the grade reached, etc., are practically the same 
as in the other industries mentioned. 

The kind of work done, the requirements of the trade and the con- 
ditions of learning were studied. On the whole, the industry still 
holds to the traditions of apprenticeship, and the proprietors of these 



66 

establishments prefer boys over sixteen years old. From the published 
reports, it would appear that there are about 935 boys, or 1.9 per cent, 
of the whole number of persons employed in the industry, who are 
under seventeen years of age. The kind of work done by these young- 
people roughly corresponds to that done by the young shoe worker. 
About half are doing miscellaneous work as helpers, errand boys and a 
low grade of production work, such as di'illing, cleaning castings, simple 
milling, etc., while the other half are doing what might be considered the 
skilled work, — running such special machines as lathes, planers, milling- 
machines, giinders, etc. The division between skilled and unskilled work 
does not seem to be made on the basis of the qualifications of the worker, 
but is due to the fact that some establishments have found that boys 
from fourteen to seventeen years old can do the same kind of work 
that is often performed by men; hence they employ a much larger 
percentage of young workers and find it profitable to do so. Ten of 
the twenty-five machine shops which sent in formal reports on appren- 
ticeshijD gave from 10 to 100 apprentices each serving terms of from 
three to four years. Fifteen of the shops reported no system of train- 
ing at all. Where the management states that such a system exists, the 
training is limited to the kind of work done in that particular shop, or, 
in some instances, to the particular department or machine on which the 
young worker is employed. Even where the shops have a sufficiently 
broad range of work to enable them to give the all-round exj^erience 
which is necessary to make a first-class machinist, it is difficult or impos- 
sible to maintain such a system of training. All the pressure on the 
foreman and superintendent is for production, and when it is found 
that a boy is capable of doing one job well, he will be kept on the spe- 
cialized machine until he becomes discouraged, and leaves. He may 
then " bluff his way " in another shop. This is well illustrated by three 
typical expressions of opinion of apprentices, obtained from a study of 
450 eases. These are used because they are from apprentices in shops 
in which the management is making a special effort to have the boys 
changed from machine to machine, and to give them the broadest pos- 
sible training to fit them for advanced work. 

I am working at the Company. I was hired here with the 

understanding that I could learn the machinist's trade. I was put on the 
gear shaper to help a man out one day and I got along so well, he said 
to stay a few days longer. Now since I can run the machine so well I 
do not get off any more. I have asked the foreman to be taken off, and 
he said he could not do so at present. As far as other treatment from 
the foreman I cannot complain. What I would like to get is a chance, 
a show. — Feb. 28, 1912. 

I am employed by the Machine Tool Company. At the 

present time I am in the lathe department and would like to run a miller 
or drill press. I would like to be changed every year or year and a half. 
I never have much trouble with the foreman when I spoil my work. He 



67 

always tells me where my weak points are and I con-ect them. Never have 
any trouble getting a raise. I have been working on the lathe since I 
started here, and it will be two years and a half this month, and have 
only received thi-ee raises. I will be satisfied to be put on a drill press 
if possible. — Feb. 8, 1912. 

I have been employed by the Company for about two years 

and a half as apprentice, and during that time I think I have been treated 
fair and square by both foremen and employees. This firm has no regular 
system for their apprentices, but they keep a fellow on one machine till 
he complains; then he may get a change, but sometimes, as was my case, 
I was on the tool grinder close to nine months, but most always he will 
get what he asks for. Now this could be improved upon by setting a 
regular system, say four months on a machine following the fellow before 
him. Other conditions in the shop are mostly what you make them. The 
foreman will treat you right if you treat him so. The only trouble with 
the foremen is that they are afraid to ask for any tools. — Feb. 8, 1912. 

Furthermore, this system does not furnish enough skilled help for 
the trade. The demands of the automobile business have drawn large 
numbers away from the machine shops, and they have not yet been 
adequately replaced. Eighteen shops report a marked scarcity of 
skilled labor to 10 which found no such lack. One of the manufacturers 
felt that something must be done immediately if Massachusetts is to 
keep its place in industry, since western cities, notably Cincinnati, are 
already taking the machine trade away from Massachusetts. 

IV, Study of Workers in the Confectionery Industry. 

The report of the Minimum Wage Commission on the candy industry 
furnishes nearly all the material necessary for conclusions as to the 
need for part-time schools. A limited investigation was undertaken to 
supplement this report on the question of training in the school and in 
the trade, and to arrive at some idea of the worker's attitude toward the 
reduction in wage that might be necessary for part-time school attend- 
ance. Twenty-five girls who started to work in the candy industry in 
1905-06 and 20 minors who started to work in 1910-11, together with 
52 members of the continuation school, were visited. 

According to the Minimum Wage report,^ 38.2 per cent, of the 
workers in the candy industry are seventeen years of age or under, and 
71.8 per cent., twenty or under. That is, more than one third of the 
workers are of the normal continuation school age, fourteen to seven- 
teen, and nearly three fourths between fourteen and twenty. 

The majority, 52.6 per cent., of the candy workers are native born 
of foreign parents, while 29.7 per cent, are foreign born. The Italians 
form 67.9 per cent, of the foreign workers, and the Hebrews 12.8 per 
cent. It is a much more distinctly foreign group than the department- 
store employees, or shoe-factory workers. 

1 Report of the Commission on Minimum Wage Boards, p. 44. 



68 



The small group investigated shows that 20 per cent, left school be- 
fore reaching the sixth grade, 33.6 per cent, left in the sixth and 
seventh grades, while only 21.0 per cent, went into the ninth grade, and 
1 entered the high school. 

Table XXIII. — Showing grade of school left to enter confectionery 
industry {95 cases). ^ 



Grade left. 



Number 
leaving. 



Per cent, 
leaving. 



Second, 

Third, 

Fourth, 

Fifth 

Sixth 

Seventh, 
Eighth, 
Ninth, 

First year high school, 
Total, . 



95 



20.0 



33.6 

24.2 

21.0 

1.0 



1 No data for 2 cases. 



Moreover, 8.4 per cent, left school before they were fourteen, 61.1 
per cent, left between fourteen and fifteen, and 24.2 per cent, at fif- 
teen, only 6.3 per cent, staying in school until they were sixteen years 
of age or over. 



Table XXIV. 



Showing age at which school was left to enter con- 
fectionery industry {95 cases). 



Age. 



Per cent. 




12 years, 

13 years, 

14 years, 

15 years, 

16 years, 

17 years, 

18 years. 

Total, 



As a group they enter the industry «ai*ly and without the normal 
equipment of education. That 91.6 per cent, should be fourteen or 
over when they left school, and only 24.2 per cent, should have reached 
the eighth grade, indicates a gToui^ of girls who are very much re- 
tarded. 



69 



Table XXV. — Showing length of period of retardation, together with 
percentage of those entering confectionery industry who were so 
retarded {95 cases). 



Years behind. 


Number. 


Per cent. 


0, 
1, 
2 

3, 

4, 
5, 

c, 


























12 
24 
20 
20 
8 
8 
3 


12.6 
25.3 
21.0 
21.0 

8.4 
8.4 
3.2 


Tot 


al, 


95 


99.9 



As a matter of fact, only 12.6 per cent, were in the normal grade 
for their age, 25.3 per cent. Avere retarded one year, 62.0 per cent, two 
years or more, and 20.0 per cent, were retarded four years or ifeore. 
This means that the group is in general an inefficient one, an aphorism 
perhaps, but worth establishing statistically. This group, then, needs 
part-time schooling for the removal of elementary school deficiencies. 
They are far below any tolerable level of education and intelligence 
for any group of citizens. There is very little opportunity for actual 
trade training for candy-faetory workers. 

According to the Minimum Wage report there is a very large sea- 
sonal variation, a great demand for workers at the time of the Christ- 
mas trade, with a very dull season following.^ Most of the new workers 
come into the trade at this time and are quickly taught as much as 
they need to know. The following table shows the method of learur 
ing : — 



Table XXVI. — Shoiving methods of learning in candy industry, with 
percentage so learning (95 cases). ^ 



Group. 



Picked up 
(per cent.). 



Taught in 

factory 
(per cent.). 



Six years in industry, 
One year in industry, 
Total, . 



' Report of the Commission on Minimum Wage Boards, p. 62. 
2 Incomplete data for 15 per cent. 

Only a small proportion, 13 per cent., " pick up " their trade, and 
they are largely the workers on skilled processes, fancy packing and 



70 

dipping. It is estimated that it takes about six months to make an 
expert dipper, — as long as it takes to make a good shoe stitcher and 
much longer than it takes to make a good buttonhole operator. It 
takes from two to three months to make an expert fancy packer, a 
lengih of time sufficient to make a good skiver. There are, then, really 
skilled processes in candy making. 

Sixty-eight and six tenths per cent, of the group of workers who 
have been out of school six years were on skilled work, while 15.8 per 
cent, of the minors, 75 per cent, of those attending the continuation 
school, were on skilled work. One out of every two girls who stay on 
in the industry, then, advance to skilled work, but about one half of 
the girls who left school six years ago to enter the candy industry 
have left to be married. 

Table XXVII. — Showing percentage on skilled and unskilled work 
in confectionery industry {95 cases). 





Skilled 


WORK. 


Unskilled work. 




Group. 


Number. 


Per cent. 


Number. 


Per cent. 


No data. 


Six years in industry, 
One year in industry, 


46 
3 


68.6 
15.8 


21 
16 


31.3 

84.2 


3 
6 



There is not sufficient opportunity in the trade to justify training 
in school for any portion of it. There is a large factory force with 
only a small number of people at the head, and the salaries paid oft'er 
jfjo incentive to the ambitious. The large proiDortion of these candy 
isv^orkers marry early, and are much more in need of sound training 
••along the line of the relation of income to expenditure and scientific 
housekeeping than they are of trade training. 

V. Study of Workers in the Cotton Mills. 
There is little doubt in the minds of those acquainted with the con- 
ditions that more schooling, especially that of a practical nature, is 
needed by the young workers in our cotton mills. The establishment 
of part-time schools seems almost imperative when one considers that 
the large majority of workers are of foreign parentage, that few of 
them have had schooling of even grammar school grade, and that the 
majority of them, although they have been working in cotton mills 
since they left school six years ago, are still doing unskilled work for 
incredibly low wages. Without training specially adapted to their 
needs, many of them can never hope to advance so that they will be 
able to do skilled work or fill i^ositions of responsibility. 



71 



Nationality. 
While a majority of the young workers in cotton mills are American 
born, only a small proportion are of American parentage. For ex- 
ample, in Lowell, 84 per cent, of the young workers in cotton mills 
were born in this country, but only 5.3 per cent, of these are of 
American parentage. In New Bedford, only 13.4 per cent, of the 75.8 
per cent, of American birth have parents who were born here. These 
percentages are undoubtedly too large, as few of those of foreign birth 
could be traced to their homes, owing to the fact that there are large 
numbers of the same name. To-day Portuguese, Italians, Poles, Greeks 
and Syrians are just beginning to make their numbers felt in the in- 
dustry. 

Schooling. 
These workers have not received much schooling. Although most of 
them have spent the normal amount of time attending school, they 
have accomplished relatively little in that time. A large majority, 80.3 
per cent., left school at fourteen, only 19.3 per cent, remaining in school 
until fifteen or older. Of all those investigated, 72.8 per cent, did not get 
through the seventh grade, 24.5 per cent, left the eighth or ninth ^grades 
and only 2.7 per cent, graduated from grammar school and began the 
hig'h school course. 



Table XXVIII. — Showing number and percentage of textile workers 
leaving different grades of school {478 eases in Fall River, New 
Bedford and Lotoell. 



Grade left. 


Number. 


Per cent. 


First to fifth 

Sixth to seventh, 

Eighth 


150 
198 
66 
51 
13 


31.4 
41.4 
13.8 


Ninth, . : 


10.7 




2.7 








Total, . 


478 


100.0 







Who will claim that the education given in the fl.rst seven grades of 
our public schools will enable an average boy to enter a cotton mill 
and by dint of perseverance reach a position sufficiently responsible to 
command resiDeetable wages after spending six or seven years in the 
mills'? 

Only 19.5 per cent, of the 271 workers in Fall River and New Bedford 
for whom we have data were in the gTade they should have been, or 
ahead of it, according to the number of years they had attended school. 



72 



Table XXIX. — Showing retardation of adult and minor textile 
v-orkers hy sex {271 cases in Fall River and New Bedford). 



Yeahs retarded. 


Group in industry 

SIX years (adults). 


Group in industry 

ONE YEAR (minors). 


Total. 


Total 
per cent. 




Boys. 


Girls. 


Boys. Girls. 


1, 

2 

3, 
4, 
5, 
6, 
7, 








21 

27 

27 

20 

8 


20 
23 
25 
16 
15 

- 


6 

10 
6 
8 
1 
1 


9 
5 
15 
2 
4 
1 
1 


56 
65 
73 
46 
28 
2 
1 


20.7 
24.0 
26.9 
16.9 
10.3 
.7 
.4 




rotal 


• 


103 99 


32 


37 


271 


99.9 



Of those retarded, 55.2 per cent, were three or more years behind 
the grade in which they should have been according to the number of 
years they had attended school, and 11.4 per cent, were retarded from 
five to seven years. Barely 27.5 per cent, of those in Fall River and 
New Bedford who had been out of school six years, and only 20 per 
cent, of those in these cities who had been out of school one year, had 
attended evening school. Illiteracy in the older group accounts for the 
larger percentage which had attended night schools. 

It can be clearly seen from the backwardness of the group in school 
and from the small number attending evening schools that these work- 
ers are in dire need of further education, and that such education must 
be imparted during the day, as they are much too weary at night to 
profit by instruction. 

Time spent at Home. 

A number of the boys and girls who left school six years ago had 
spent from several months to four years of that time at home. 

Table XXX. — Shoiving number and percentage of textile workers who 
spent different periods of time at home before entering industry.^ 



Years at home. 



None, . 

to 1, . 

1 to 2, . 

2 to 3, . 

3 to 4, . 

Total, 



Boys. 



Ill 
12 
3 



Per cent. 



87.3 
9.4 
2.4 



Girls. 



1152 



Per cent. 



53 
33.9 

8.7 

4 3 



99.9 



Total. 



172 
51 
13 
3 



1 Based on Fall River and New Bedford returns only for those who left school six years ago. 

2 Does not include 13 who married. 



73 

While 9.4 per cent, of the boys had lost from several months to a 
year, 33,9 per cent, of the girls had spent this amount of time at home. 
Three and two tenths per cent, of the boys and 13 per cent, of the 
girls who had not married had lost from one to four years. 

The data coUected for the 478 cases in the three cities studied shows 
that of those who had been out of school but one year, 44 per cent, 
were on skilled work and 52.4 per cent, of the younger girls were doing 
skilled work, as opposed to 30.2 per cent, of the boys, while only 55 
per cent, of the boys and 73.4 per cent, of the girls who had been in 
the cotton mills six years were on skilled processes, thus showing how 
much advancement is made during the first year at work as compared 
with that made during six years in the industry. To advance in the 
industry, 70.3 per cent, of those leaving school six years ago found 
it necessary to go to another mill. Only 21.5 per cent, were able to 
advance without leaving, and 8.1 per cent, alone could advance more 
than one step in the same miU. Of those leaving school one year 
ago, 77.4 per cent, remained at the same job, 19 per cent, advanced 
one step in the same mill and 3.6 per cent, were promoted twice. 

A large amount of shifting would probably be obviated if these work- 
ers could attend part-time schools during their first years at work. 
At present, when a worker wants to advance he usually finds the way 
blocked in the mill in which he happens to be employed because those 
in authority do not consider him competent. As a result the boy leaves 
and seeks a chance to try himself out on a better job in another mill, 
and in so doing he may injure both machinery and material. If part- 
time schools were established so that workers could have an oppor- 
tunity to learn more of the industry, they would probably find their 
foremen more willing to advance them where promotion is possible, 
and thus greatly diminish the amount of shifting and time lost. 

Wages. 

A majority, 71.8 per cent., of those who had been at work six years 
were still earning between $6 and $10 a week; 20.1 per cent, were 
earning between $10 and $15 a week, while only .99 per cent, were 
making $15 or more. More than three fourths, 77.6 per cent, of those 
who had been at work only one year, were earning between $6 and 
$10, while 12.9 per cent, were getting between $3 and $6. 

The workers are deeply impressed by the small opportunity of reach- 
ing a good position in the cotton mills through their own efforts, and 
therefore they are much interested in the thought of part-time schools. 
There are two reasons for this interest. A majority of these young 
workers, 54.1 per cent., would welcome a chance to take up other 
lines of work offering fair opportunities, and part-time schools which 
offer instruction in various trades would be of great help to them. 
Others who expect to remain in the mills would receive much benefit 
if they could have instruction in the cotton industry and the manu- 



74 



facture of cloth. Thus part-time schools would serve two purposes 
for the young workers in cotton mills. Courses of instruction in the 
cotton industry should be offered for the benefit of those who expect 
to remain in the mills, and thus increase their efficiency and enable 
them to advance. In addition, courses should be offered for those who 
want to become machinists, carpenters, plumbers, shoemakers, dress- 
makers, milliners, or to enter business. Besides these trade-training 
courses, instruction should be given to increase the general knowledge 
of these workers, and thus make them better citizens. 

VI. Study of Young Workers in the Boot and Shoe Industry. 

Young workers in the boot and shoe industry are in need of some 
form of schooling which will make it possible for them to overcome 
the obstacles in the way of their advancement. The factories need 
more efficient workmen, who understand more than one department. 
If they can acquire some knowledge of comanercial arithmetic, methods 
of figuring costs, and of factory organization they will possibly be 
in line for promotion to positions as foi'emen and superintendents. 

The workers in the shoe factories are more largely American than 
those in the mill industries, as shown by the following table : — 



Table XXXI. — Showing nativity and parentage of worJcers in shoe 
industry who were out of school six years {151 cases). 





Boston. 


Brockton. 


Ly 


VN. 


Total. 




Num- 
ber. 


Per 

cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


151 cases: — 


















Native born, 


49 


96 


41 


85 


32 


62 


122 


80.8 


Foreign born, 


2 


4 


7 


15 


20 


38 


29 


19.2 


Total, 


51 


100 


48 


100 


52 


100 


151 


100.0 


128 cases: I — 


















Native parents, . 


10 


25 


12 


25 


22 


43 


44 


31.0 


Foreign parents, . 


30 


75 


25 


75 


29 


67 


84 


69.0 


Total, 


40 


100 


37 


100 


51 


100 


128 


100.0 



I Complete data could be secured for only this number. 



75 



Table XXXIL — Shoiving nativity and parentage of worlcers in shoe 
industry who had been out of school one year {86 cases). 





Boston. 


Bbockton. 


Lynn. 


Total. 




Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


86 cases: — 


















Native born, 


27 


90 


26 


89.0 


24 


89 


77 


89 


Foreign born, 


3 


10 


3 


11.0 


3 


11 


9 


11 


Total, 


30 


100 


29 


100.0 


27 


100 


86 


100 


78 cases: 1 — 


















Native parents, 


6 


24 


10 


37.5 


10 


37 


26 


28 


Foreign parents, . 


19 


76 


16 


62.5 


17 


63 


62 


72 


Total, 


25 


100 


26 


100.0 


27 


100 


78 


100 



1 Complete data available for only this number. 



In Lynn, 38 per cent, of those who had been in the industry six 
years were foreign born. In Brockton and Boston together, only 19 
per cent, were foreign born. Lynn undoubtedly represents more 
correctly the truth of the situation for the whole industi*y. It is prob- 
able that the figures in the above tables which indicate the total num- 
ber of American born in both groups are much too high an estimate 
for the industry as a whole. The groups in Brockton and Boston 
represent a somewhat selected group from the point of view of nation- 
ality because the names were taken from the age and schooling certifi- 
cates. In Lynn this material was not available, so a group was selected 
from the factories, made up of those who began their industrial career 
in the shoe factoiy at fourteen years of age and who had been at 
work from five to seven years. Since the names were not taken from 
the age and schooling certificates it did not always happen that they 
had been to school in Lynn. It was to be expected, therefore, that 
this gToup would show a larger percentage of foreign-born workers 
than was found in the other groups. 

Of the American born, only 31 per cent, were born of American 
parents. These were largely workers who came from Maine, New 
Hampshire and Vermont, and from the outlying towns in the shoe 
districts of Massachusetts. In the cities themselves, the workers of 
American parentage usually try to obtain work at higher wages or 
with a larger future than the shoe factory offers. Among the city born 
it is the second generation of Irish, French, English and German which' 
predominates in the industry, — Irish in Boston, Swedes in Brockton, 
French and Germans in Lynn and Russians everywhere. The Italians, 
Greeks and Poles are newcomers in the industry, only a few of them 



76 



eould be reached through the age and schooling certificates, which indi- 
cates that they have received very little schooling in America; conse- 
quently, they are not proportionately represented in these tables; yet 
these returns undoubtedly indicate the true state of affairs. There is a 
large group of workers of American birth and American parentage, 
unusually large for a factory industry. It is to be exjDected, therefore, 
ihat there will not be so great a need for the removal of elementary 
school deficiencies. That this is the case is shown by the following 
tables : — 



Table XXXIII. — Showing percentage of shoe workers leaving differ- 
ent grades of school {245 cases). 



Grade left. 


Group 
in industry- 
six years 
(per cent.). 


Group 
in industry 

one year 
(per cent.). 


Total group 
(per cent.). 


Below sixth, . 
Sixth, . 
Seventh, 
Eighth, 
Ninth, . 
High school, 





13.5 
12,5 
18.4 
26.8 
22.2 
6.6 


12.5 
12.5 
20.0 
20.0 
20.0 
15.0 


10.2 
14.3 
17.3 
25.3 
23.2 
9.7 


Total, . 


100.0 


100.0 


100.0 



Table XXXIV. — Showing age at which shoe workers left school to 
enter industry {245 cases). 













Group in industry 
six tears. 


Group in industry 

ONE YEAR. 


Total 




Number. 


Per cent. 


Number. 


Per cent. 


group. 


12 years, 

13 years, 

14 years, 

15 years, 

16 years, 

17 years. 










2 
4 
90 
54 

7 


1.2 

2.6 

57.3 

34.4 

4.5 


46 

34 

6 

2 


52.3 

38.7 

6.8 

2.2 


2 
4 
136 
88 
13 
2 


Total, 


157 


100.0 


88 


100.0 


245 



Of the whole group investigated, 48.5 per cent, left in the eighth 
or ninth grade, — 25.3 per cent, in the eighth and 23.2 per cent, in 
the ninth. It is true that 10.2 per cent, did not reach the sixth grade, 
but 9.7 per cent., nearly one tenth of the total, entered high school. 
This indicates a fair elementary education for the group. 



77 



The young people who go into the shoe factories ai'e tyiDieal of the 
whole gToup not effectively reached by the regxilar school. For the 
whole group, 87.1 per cent, are retarded one year or more, and 12.9 
per cent, four years or more. 

Table XXXV. — Showing retardation in school of workers who entered 
shoe industry {171 cases). 



Years hetarded. 



Group 
in industry 
six years. 



1, 
2, 
3. 
4, 
5, 
6, 

Total, 



125 



Group in industry one year. 



Boys. 



25 



Girls. 



Total. 



46 



Total. 



The 27.8 per cent. -who are even with or ahead of the grade in which 
they should have been, according to the number of years they had 
attended school, seems a small proportion, but it is larger than it is in 
the cotton mills or candy factories. While the educational status of 
this group does not seem very good, it is exceptional in comparison 
with the other industries. Yet it may easUy be seen that these young 
people have not had enough schooling to make them very efficient 
foremen or forewomen. 

As a group they are ambitious; 26.1 per cent, of the twenty to 
twenty-one year old workers, and 31.8 per cent, of those who had been 
at work one year, had attended night school. If from one fourth to 
one third make the effort to go to night school after a long day in 
the factory, it is only fair to expect that from one third to one half 
would go to a part-time school. Thus the material -with which a part- 
time school would have to deal in the shoe industry is good. The 
group has a fair education, is not abnormally dull, as measured by 
the regular school standards, and is ambitious enough to take advan- 
tage of offered opportunities. They need some training to show them 
the relation between their school knowledge and the problems of their 
industry. 

Much more needed, however, is some wider knowledge of the trade 
itself, and a reform in the method of teaching separate jobs. It is 
unusual in a shoe factory for a man to know more than one good 
job. If the work is short in his own shop, he has only one specialty 
to offer in his search for work. If his shop is overcrowded in other 
departments, he may and often does have to sit idle at his machine 



78 



while other people work overtime. Lack of a sufficiently wide knowl- 
edge of the industry makes it impossible to move freely from the 
factory in which there are too many to the one where there are too 
few. 

Some reform in the method of teaching the trade is desirable. At 
pi-esent 27.7 per cent. " pick up " their trade, while 68 per cent, are 
taught in the factory. Teaching in the factory means one thing in 
Boston and another in Lynn and in Brockton. In Boston, a boy is set 
deliberately, to learn a job; in Lynn and Brockton, if he takes ad- 
vantage of his many opportunities to " do a good turn " for the men 
at their machines while he is working around the room, they will 
return the favor by showing him, in odd moments, how the machine 
works, and occasionally letting him try to run it. It is a rare thing 
for a foreman, or any one in authority, to teach a young worker in 
Lynn and Brockton, more rare in Brockton than in Lynn. The pro- 
portion who learn outside of the factory is negligibly small. Girls 
have an easier time, in that they are given an opportunity to learn, 
at one time or another, everything which they cannot learn by watch- 
ing. The result of the restricted opportunities for men is that they 
half learn a job in one shop and then go on to another to work at it. 
In their own shop they would have little chance. ■ 



Table XXXVI. — Showing number of changes of occupation within 
this industry made by shoe workers in six years {153 cases). 



Changes. 



Per cent. 




None, . 
One, . 
Two, . 
Three, 
Four, . 
Total, 



Fifty-nine per cent, were not able to advance in the factory; 31.4 
per cent, were able to advance one step without changing factories, 
while only 9.6 per cent, were able to advance more than one step. 
This statement is based on the assumption that a change of job within 
the factory means an advance, — which is true in the vast majority of 
cases. 

Another result is that they are forced to stay on unskilled work 
longer than their age requires, because they do not have a fair oppor- 
tunity to learn to do skilled work. In Boston, where thei-e is con- 
siderable freedom in teaching, 60 per cent, go on to a skilled operation 



79 

in two years or less; in Lynn, whieli eomes next in opportunity, 51 
per cent, are on skilled work in that time, while in Brockton, where 
the opportunities for learning are very restricted, only 38 per cent, 
get on to a skilled job in less than two years. Of the whole group 
which had been out of school six years, only 43 per cent, were on 
skilled work. Of those in Lynn whose last job in the shoe factory 
\vas on unskilled work, 65.3 per cent., and 63 per cent, in Brockton were 
on unskilled work for four years or more; while in Boston only 10.5 
per cent, were on unskilled work more than four years. Apparently 
in Boston, if they do not get on to skilled work after a few years, they 
get out of the industry, while in Brockton and Lynn, where other 
oppoi-tunities are few, they stay on. 

The shifting from factory to factory may be described as follows: 
in Boston 88.7 per cent, of the workers who had been out of school 
six years had not shifted at all; in Brockton 32.2 per cent, and in 
Lynn 27.2 per cent, had not shifted at all; but in Boston 49.2 per 
cent, had worked in the shoe industry one year or less, while in Brock- 
ton 15.1 per cent, and in Lynn 9.1 per cent, had worked in the shoe 
industry one year or less. (The Lynn figxires are not safe on account 
of the method of selecting.) In Boston, then, the workers eithef stay 
in the same factory or leave the industry entirely. Of course, until 
recently there have not been many shoe factories in Boston, so that 
the worker could not wander from one to another. Those who have 
worked one year are not " shifters." In Boston only 2 of this group 
had shifted at all; in Brockton only 3, while in Lynn 4 — more than 
half — had shifted. Only 2, however, had shifted more than once. 
This shifting is not the casual thing which is to be found in so many 
of the monotonous industries; 31.3 per cent, were forced to shift, 
either because the work was slack or because they were " fired," or 
because they were ill; 28.7 per cent, shifted to advance. Only 19.9 per 
cent, shifted because they " didn't like it," the reason given by the 
professional " shifter." 

While advancement in the trade is difficult for the native group, 
or for those who have attachments in the shoe city, it is easy for the 
rover and the foreigner. The rover can go to some nonunion city or 
town and learn his trade there; when he comes back with a knowledge 
of the trade he is admitted to the union without much question. The 
foreigner is willing to accept shop conditions which are intolerable 
to a person who has some standards of decency. He can often get 
the training in the one or two nonunion shops existing in every union 
city, and, when he has acquired his knowledge, he is admitted to the 
union. It is the young boy Avho lives at home and who would not stand 
the conditions in the " scab " shop who loses out on this method. Even 
when he learns his job he does not learn anything about the machine 
which he operates. He can run it, and that is all. 



80 



In order to teach more economically, to give native workers a fair 
chance in the industry, to increase the supply of heads of rooms and 
superintendents, and to furnish sufficient training for the free exer- 
cise of whatever inventive talent these workers may have, some form 
of industrial training is necessary. 

So far as money is concerned, the workers in this trade are pros- 
perous. More than one fourth, 28.5 per cent., of the workers who 
had been in the industry more than six years get between $15 and $20 
a week, and more than one half get between $12 and $20 a week, 
while 7.9 per cent, get over $20. 

Table XXXVII. — Showing wage received by shoe workers after six 
years in industry in three different cities {141 cases). 





Ltnn. 


Brockton. 


Boston. 


Total. 


Wage. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 

cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 

cent. 


Under S8, 
$8 to $9.99, . 
$10 to S11.99, . 
$12 to $14.99, . 
$15 to $19.99, . 
Over 820, .... 


2 
9 
6 
11 

17 

8 


3.8 
16.9 
11.3 
20.7 
32.0 
15.2 


3 
8 
6 

15 
9 


7.3 
19.5 
14.7 
36,5 
21.9 


7 
5 
7 
11 
14 
3 


14.9 
10.6 
14.9 
23.4 
29.8 
6.4 


12 
22 
19 
37 
40 
11 


8.5 
15.7 
13.7 
25.7 
28.5 

7.9 


Total, 


53 


99.9 


41 


99.9 


47 


100.0 


141 


100.0 



Lynn ranks highest in wages paid young workers, Boston comes next, 
and Brockton is lowest. In Lynn, 47.2 per cent, get over $15 a week; in 
Boston, 36.2 per cent.; and in Brockton, 21.9 per cent, receive over $15 
a week. In Lynn, 15.2 per cent, get more than $20 per week; in Boston, 
6.4 per cent.; and in Brockton, none receive more than $20. In Lynn, 
only 3.8 per cent, are getting less than $8 a week; in Brockton, 7.3 
per cent.; and in Boston, 14.9 per cent, are receiving less than that. 
In Brockton this is doubtless due to the restrictions which prevent the 
young worker from advancing, and in Boston it is probably due to 
the fact that the general level of wages in the shoe industry is low. 
These figures are for the whole group, regardless of whether the mem- 
bers are now in the shoe industry or not. 



81 



Table XXXVIII. — Showing increases in wage over initial wage among 
shoe workers after one year in industry {64 eases). 



Wage increase. 


Boys. 


Girls. 


Total. 


Per cent. 


Less than beginning, 


2 


_ 


2 


3.1 


Beginning wage, 


10 


18 


28 


43.7 


SI 


9 


4 


13 


20.3 


$2 


3 


6 


9 


14.1 


$3, 


2 


4 


6 


9.4 


$i 


- 


5 


5 


7.8 


$6 


1 


- 


1 


1.6 


Total, 


27 


37 


64 


100.0 



Table XXXIX. — Showing increase in wage over initial wage among 
shoe workers after six years in industry {102 cases). 





Ly 


VN. 


Brockton. 


Boston. 


Toa<AL. 


Wage increase. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 

cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 

cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Less than initial wage, 


2 


4.1 


2 


6.2 


1 


4.8 


5 


4.9 


$1 to $3, ... 


7 


14.3 


4 


12.5 


2 


9.5 


13 


12.7 


$4 to $6, ... 


11 


22.4 


14 


43.8 


1 


4.8 


26 


25.5 


$7 to $10, 


14 


28.6 


6 


18.8 


6 


28.6 


26 


25.5 


811 to S13, 


5 


10.2 


5 


15.6 


6 


28.6 


16 


15.7 


S14 to 816, 


8 


16.3 


1 


3.1 


3 


14.2 


12 


■ 11.8 


Over $16, .... 


2 


4.1 


- 


- 


2 


9.5 


4 


3.9 


Total, 


49 


100.0 


32 


100.0 


21 


100.0 


102 


100.0 



These tables show an early advance to high earnings. In Brockton 
only 37.5 per cent, had increased their wage more than $7 over their 
beginning Avage; in Lynn, 59.2 per cent.; and in Boston, 80.9 per cent, 
had done this. In Boston, if advance were impossible they left the 
trade; in Lynn they had advanced, but in Brockton a large proportion 
had not. 



82 



Table XL. — Showing tvages received in shoe industry after one year 
of service {based on data of 83 cases). 





Wage received. 


Number 
of workers. 


Per cent, 
of workers. 


S3 to $i. 




11 


13.2 


S4 to S5, 




15 


IS.l 


So to 86, 




20 


24.1 


S6 to $7, . 




14 


16.9 


$7 to S8, 




12 


14.5 


$8 to S9, 




4 


4.8 


Over S9, 




7 


8.4 


Total, . 


83 


100.0 



In less than a year 27.7 per cent, were earning $7 or more, but the 
majority were earning less than $6. The wages in the shoe industry 
are high enough to content more than one half of the workers. Fifty- 
nine and six tenths per cent, were satisfied to stay in the shoe in- 
dustry, 37.6 per cent, did not care for any change of employment 
within the industry, and 22 per cent, wanted to learn some good job in 
the shoe business. In Boston, only 5 wanted to learn another job in 
the shoe trade ; in Brockton, 12, and in Lynn, 14, desired to do this, — 
a sequence which again corresponds with the opportunities in these 
cities. In Boston the young men aspire to 18 different trades, in 
Brockton to 10 and in Lynn to 8. Those in Lynn and Brockton tended 
toward other work with the hands, desiring to become electricians, 
mechanics, carpenters, etc. Those in Boston, because of the varied 
opportunities, had ambitions equally varied, some aspiring to be window 
dressers, buyers, physical directors, etc. Of those who had been at 
work one year 32.6 per cent, of the girls wanted to learn another job 
in the shoe trade, 24.4 per cent, wanted to go into business, to learn 
typewriting, stenogTapby or bookkeeping, while 20.4 per cent, were 
satisfied as they were. Of the boys, only 18.4 per cent, wanted to learn 
some other job in the shoe trade, 9.2 per cent, wanted to go into 
business as clerks or bookkeepers, 9.2 per cent, wanted to become elec- 
tricians, machinists, tool makei's or printers. The rest were scattered, 
some desiring to be farmers, waiters, plumbers, designers, chauffeurs, 
etc., while a few wished to go to college. 

Many have not been content merely to want to make a change. Of 
the twenty to twenty-one year old group, 29 from Boston, 55 per cent., 
had already left the industry, and 12, or 24 per cent., in Brockton had 
done this. For Lynn there are no data, but it is not likely that the 
percentage would be higher than for Brockton. This, too, indicates 



83 

that in Boston, where the opportunities are many, the worker who does 
not like shoe work, or who does not get on, leaves the industry. That 
he does not do as well as the one who stays on is shown by the table 
which includes his wages, bringing Boston down. 

The investigation has shown that the shoe-factory workers are, as 
a gTOup, intelligent and well educated enough to profit by part-time 
schooling; that they are in need of systematic training in their trade, 
and that those who are dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities to 
get out of it are, as a gToup, interested in advancing. It has further 
shown that the wages are high, and that it is therefore a trade which 
should be encouraged by the State. 



/ . 



84 



Appendix D 



APPRENTICESHIP. 

I. Is THE Establishment of an Apprenticeship System practi- 
cable ? 

Trades and occupations were formerly so organized that the indi- 
vidual worker was obliged to have a knowledge of the whole in order 
to succeed. This resulted in a system of training known as apprentice- 
ship, which gave to the worker a knowledge of every part of the' 
trade he intended to practice. In most cases, the master, with one or 
more apprentices, formed an independent unit of production. As 
time went on, these small units combined, and production on large 
scale, with extreme division of labor, has gradually resulted. This 
condition makes it no longer imperative that the individual worker, 
in order to earn a living, have a knowledge of more than one portion 
of the business. Where it formerly required an extensive period of 
training, from three to seven years, for a man to gain enough expe- 
rience to become an independent worker, it may now require only a 
few days or Aveeks to learn one operation on a highly specialized 
machine. Formerly there was, as a rule, one apprentice or helper for 
every mature worker, who was responsible for his training. Modern 
conditions have practically eliminated the helper system, and where 
young peoi^le are employed it is either as independent workers in large 
gToups responsible to one man, or as helpers to individuals on spe- 
cialized employment. In either case, these young people come in con- 
tact with only a small portion of the business, and no one is directly re- 
sponsible for their training. While the older system of apprenticeship 
was probably adequate to foi-mer industrial conditions, it would be 
wholly inadequate to-day, besides being a Avasteful method of training. 
Men who know the whole business are fast disappearing, and complete 
industries cannot be learned from one man, but must be learned from 
several. Eule-of-thumb methods have been superseded by scientific 
methods, which make technical knowledge an absolute necessity for 
promotion. 

To-day two types of workers ai'e found, those with little initiative 
or little opportunity, who remain on unskilled jobs at low pay, and 
those with more force, or perhaps better opportunity, who become 
so-called skilled operatives. In one group studied (see page 51), 42 



85 

per cent., or nearly half, of those who have been at work for six years, 
and are now twenty to twenty-one years old, are still employed on 
unskilled work at a low wage, while the remaining 58 per oent. are 
working on what are considered skilled operations. Given the right 
opportunity and training, a young man can generally reach his maxi- 
mum of speed and skill on a special operation at nineteen or earlier. 
The result is that about one half of the young workers become dis- 
couraged because of the lack of an opportunity to advance, and the 
rest, satisfied with a comparatively good wage, have their ambition and 
development arrested at too early a period in their lives, either for 
their own good or for the good of the industry. In either case, they 
have little opportunity to get the all-round experience in the business 
which makes for industrial intelligence, and a general understanding 
of the work upon which technical instruction must be based. 

The changes in our method of manufacturing have made it easily 
possible for young people employed on specialized jobs to earn a much 
larger wage than those who are being trained by the existing system of 
apprenticeship, which aims at the ultimate efficiency rather than the 
immediate earning jDower of the apprentice. This condition makes it 
difficult to hold young workers to the completion of an apprentice- 
ship in the face of the constant and insistent temptation to take 
specialized jobs at higher wages. Consolidation of industry and the 
development of specialized machines have made it impossible for the 
employer to train his young workers in this large way, even though 
he were willing to undertake such a responsibility in the stress of 
competition. Competitive conditions and production on a large scale 
mean that every foot of floor space and each valuable machine must be 
utilized to its full capacity at all times, and manufacturers do not 
feel able to curtail production in order to teach young people on these 
machines when they are likely to shift to another establishment presently 
and hire out as highly skilled operatives at an increased wage. Appren- 
ticeship of the character formerly prevailing is so expensive that it has 
been quite generally abandoned. In a large factory, however, a teacher 
or workman can be employed to give his entire time to a group of boys, 
and where these boys are selected, the system can actually be made to 
show a profit to the manufacturer. With the exception of a few metal- 
working and printing establishments, apprenticeship is rarely found in 
connection with the industries studied, in the case of the employment of 
young persons from fourteen to seventeen years of age. Where em- 
ployers claim that it still exists in their shops, they seldom show more 
than a method of training for one machine or one department. To 
give merely the ability to earn a living as an independent worker in 
most industries requires a comparatively limited knowledge of the 
business as a whole, and this instruction could be given in the shop or 
faetoiy. Apprenticeship in this sense, however, involves such a short 



86 

period of training and is so narrow in its scojDe that it is not worthy 
of consideration. From the standpoint of general and industrial intelli- 
gence, of getting the best out of life, and of training possible future 
leaders, it is quite necessary to have an intelligent knowledge of the bus- 
iness as a whole. 

Present conditions have made it more and more difficult to secure 
as workers persons who are interested in their work, who understand 
its relation to that of others, and who feel at all responsible for the 
success of the business as a whole. The most thoughtful employers 
feel that in the interests of industry something must be developed to 
take the place of the old apprenticeship system which will in a broad 
way make for a general understanding of the business. In this way 
the worker will see the relation of his work to that of his fellows, and 
will realize that imperfections in his work will cause trouble in suc- 
ceeding operations, and make difficulties for other workmen, for the 
foremen and for the superintendent. Such general knowledge will 
make better workmen and at the same time will enable those with 
natural capacity for leadership to receive the kind of training which 
will make for promotion. 

It is no longer possible for the shop alone to give such a broad train- 
ing, but experience goes to show that it is possible, through part-time 
schooling, in which the shop or factory unites with the school in train- 
ing the boy, to secure a better preparation for industry than the 
apprenticeship of former days could give. Employers have made deter- 
mined efforts to maintain apprenticeship where there is the greatest 
need for men with all-round training and experience, but they have 
found it impossible to do this without an agency other than the shop. 
They have found that the related scientific and technical knowledge 
must be given in a school, and where the public schools have failed to 
do this, they have established schools of their own. There is every 
reason to believe that the adoption of a comprehensive plan of co- 
operation between the public schools and employers will bring back 
into industry the most desirable features of the old plan, viz., interest 
and responsibility for the welfare of the young worker, more favorable 
relations between the employer and the employee, permanency of em- 
ployment and a means of imparting the best of all, — accumulated 
knowledge on the subject. 

The impracticability of the apprenticeship system holds true in ma- 
chine shops, as is evidenced by the report on the " Conditions in 
Machine Shops," found on page 65; also from the study of textile 
workers, of which the report on 150 boys in Lowell, on page 61, is 
typical. It is clear that the work in cotton mills of to-day is so 
specialized that an apprenticeship system would be of little use. It 
requires so short a time for the young worker to learn his work, usu- 
ally from thirty minutes to eight hours, that there is no need for an 
apprenticeship system to help him in getting started in the mill. Help 



87 

is needed later, however, in the form of part-time schooling, to enable 
the boy to advance in the mill. 

In the boot and shoe industry in some establishments apprentices are 
found in practically only one department, the cutting room. At the 
present time the usual way to learn the cutter's trade is to secure the 
employer's and union's -permission to become an apprentice. Local 
unions have regTilations concerning apprentices in other processes. 

Three other ways of learning a skilled process in the shoe industry 
have proved to be more practicable, in spite of their limitations, 
namely, by attending a shoe-making school, by getting employment in 
an isolated factory or by " stealing " a trade. 

In two of the largest shoe centers in the State six shoe schools were 
found and visited.^ These schools are private enterjorises, and are not 
favorably regarded by either shoe manufacturers or unions. Manufac- 
turers claim that the pupils are poorly taught, and the present shoe 
workers do not wish to limit their opportunities in the industry by 
having a surplus of labor such as these schools might produce. 

Those attending the schools are, to an increasing degree, of foreign 
birth, and many of them are only partly literate. Frequently they 
have been in this country only a few months and are thus anxiious to 
learn a trade. The physical conditions in these schools are very much 
lower than those found in the ordinary shoe factory. 

Only two of these schools teach most of the processes of the trade; 
two others give instruction only in stitching room operations, and the 
other two teach those processes peculiar to a "turned" shoe (one that 
is lasted wrong side out and then "turned"), — a process giving 
greater flexibility. 

1 Abstract of study made by the Department of Research, Women's Educational and Industrial 
Union, which will be published in full later. 



88 



Table showing processes taught and number of students learning each 

in four schools^ 





Schools. 


Processes. 


A. 


B. 


C. 


D. 


Total. 


Goodyear welting 


18 


- 


- 


- 


18 


Goodyear stitching 


18 


- 


- 


- 


18 


Rounding 


10 


- 


- 


- 


10 


Turn stitching, 


- 


- 


3 


- 


3 


Rapid stitching 


- 


- 


2 


- 


2 


Edge trimming, 


30 


30 


2 


- 


62 


McKay stitching, 


- 


7 


- 


- 


7 


Heeling and slugging 


8 


- 


- 


- 


8 


Vamping 


50 


50 


- 


30 


130 


Cutting, 


- 


9 


- 


- 


9 


Pulling over, 


35 


35 


- 


- 


70 


Lasting on No. 5 machine, 


45 


- 


- 


- 


45 


Skiving 


- 


- 


- 


11 


11 


Bottom finishing 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Edge setting, 


25 


25 


- 


- 


50 


Foxing and tip stitching, .... 


20 


50 


- 


- 


70 


Top stitching 


■ - 


- 


- 


50 


50 


Turn lasting 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Turning and beating out, .... 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Buffing, 


- 


9 


- 


- 


9 


Scouring and breasting, .... 


- 


9 


- 


- 


9 


Seaming and backstay ing. 


30 


- 


- 


- 


30 


McKay lasting 


- 


- 


2 


- 


2 


Nailing heel seats 


5 


- 


- 


- 


5 


Hand lasting, 


12 


- 


- 


- 


12 


Leveling and stitch separating, . 


4 


- 


- 


- 


4 


Stitching linings 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Patent leather repairing, . • , • 


25 


- 


- 


- 


25 


Table work 


150 


- 


- 


- 


150 




485 


224 


9 


91 


809 



1 The manager of the fifth school could not give numbers learning the different processes, but 
between July, 1911, and the first of February, 1912, the school had taught 300. 

For teaching these different processes various sums are charged, 
from nothing in the case of table work to $75 for Goodyear welting 
or stitching, according to the amount of training required. The amount 
of tuition also varies somewhat in the different schools, according to 
the grade of work for which the school trains. 



89 



Table showing processes taught and tuition for each by schools. 





Schools. 


Processes. 


A. 


B. 


C. 


D. 


E. 


Goodyear welting, 


$75 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Goodyear stitching 


75 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Rounding 


50 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Turn stitching, 


- 


- 


$50 


- 


- 


Rapid stitching 


- 


- 


50 


- 


- 


Edge trimming, 


40 


$25 


25 


- 


- 


McKay stitching, 


- 


35 


25 


- 


- 


Heeling and slugging, .... 


25 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Vamping, 


25 


20 


- 


825 


$25 


Cutting, 


- 


25 


- 


- 


- 


Pulling over, 


25 


15 


- 


- 


- 


Lasting on No. 5 machine, 


25 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Skiving 


- 


- 


- 


25 


/ ~ 


Bottom finishing, . . . . 


- 


- 


25 


- 


- 


Edge setting, 


20 


20 


- 


- 


- 


Foxing and tip stitching 


15 


10 


- 


- 


-, 




- 


5 


- 


15 


10 


Turning and beating out, .... 


- 


- 


15 


- 


- 


Turn lasting, 


- 


- 


15 


- 


- 


Buffing 


- 


15 


- 


- 


- 


Scouring and breasting, .... 


- 


15 


- 


- 


- 


Seaming and backstaying, .... 


10 


- 


- 


- 


- 


McKay lasting, 


- 


- 


10 


- 


- 


Nailing heel seats 


10 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Hand lasting, 


10 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Leveling and stitch separating, . 


10 


- 




- 


- 


Stitching linings, 


- 


- 


- 


- 


5 


Patent leather repairing 


5 


- 


- 


- 


- 


Table work, 


- 


- 


- 


- 


- 





The teaching of the operations studied by boys usually costs more 
than the teaching of those which girls learn. No operation open to 
women costs more than $25, while men must pay up to $75, 



90 



Table showing processes taught men and women^ and tuition, based on 
the statements of managers of five shoemaking schools} 



Processes. 



Goodyear welting, 
Goodyear stitching, . 

Rounding, 

Turn stitching, . . . . 
Rapid stitching. 

Edge trimming 

McKay stitching. 
Heeling and slugging, 

Cutting 

Lasting on No. 5 machine. 

Skiving, 

Bottom finishing, 

Vamping, 

Pulling over, . . . . 
Edge setting, . . . . 
Foxing and tip stitching, . 
Turn lasting, . . . . 
Turning and beating out, . 

Buffing, 

Scouring and breasting. 

Top stitching, ... 

Seaming and backstaying, 

McKay lasting, . 

Nailing heel seats. 

Hand lasting. 

Leveling and stitch separating, 

Stitching linings. 

Patent leather repairing. 

Table work. 



Pupils. 



Men. 



X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 



X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 
X 



Women. 



Tuition. 



875 
75 
50 
50 
50 

25-40 
35 
25 
25 
25 
25 
25 

20-25 

15-25 
20 
15 
15 
15 
15 
15 

5-15 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
5 
5 



I Six schools were found, but information could be obtained from only five. 

As the amount paid for learning a process is based upon the amount 
of skill necessary, which in turn determines the wage, it can be seen 
that those processes requiring the most skill and paying the best wages 
are open only to men. 

On the other hand, while a boy commonly learns only one process in a 
school, a girl may and often does learn several. For example, a boy who 



91 

attends a school to learn Goodyear welting is put immediately upon 
that process, and learns that one operation only, while a girl who 
enters to learn vamping is started on the simpler stitching operations, 
such as stitching linings, baekstaying and other top-stitching processes, 
before she is finally put on vamping. Thus, when she has finished her 
course, she knows several processes in addition to the one she set out 
to learn. 

While all instruction is individual, yet the training received is often 
of little value beyond learning how to run a power machine, and the 
worker finds he has a " lot to learn " when he goes to a factory. The 
instructors in these schools supervise the work done by the students 
only after they have once been taught to operate a machine. The 
managers of the schools make practically no effort to place their pupils. 
The fact of having attended a school usually works negatively when 
looking for work, as foremen do not like to hire workers who have 
learned their trade in a shoemaking school. They prefer absolutely 
unskilled workers, as those who have attended the schools have not 
been carefully taught. One superintendent denounced the schools as 
money-making schemes, and claimed that if there was a rush of stu- 
dents at one of these schools, the old pupils were frequently ^sked 
to leave and make room for the new students, although in some in- 
stances they had not fully learned the processes they were studying. 
As the number of workers these schools place in the trade each year is 
very small, the schools do not play an important part in training for 
the industry. 

In a few eases the foreman may train young workers if they start 
in small or isolated factories. For example, in one large isolated 
factory a regular system of training is maintained. Boys and girls 
are employed at fourteen years or older and are taught simple proc- 
esses. If they wish to learn more skilled operations, the firm grants 
them permits, and they may use their lunch hours or dull seasons to 
acquire the necessary information. Instruction is given by foremen, 
friends or other workers. 

One drawback to being taught in the factory is that the young 
worker has usually less choice in the operation he may learn than has 
the boy who teaches himself or " steals " his trade. The foreman con- 
siders that he is a better judge of the worker's capacity, and he usu- 
ally puts the boy on the work where he happens to be short of help, 
regardless of the feelings or capabilities of the young worker. A 
large proportion of these young " learners " do not stay long enough 
to complete their training. They are advanced so slowly that they lose 
courage, and leave to try their luck at " picking up " or " stealing " 
a trade in another factory, which makes no pretence of giving training. 

But the young workers who attend shoe schools or receive regular 
training in factories form only a small proportion of those learning 
the trade at any given time. The general method of training is for a 



92 

young worker to begin on such unskilled work as pasting, trimming 
ends, match marking or running errands. He may improve any opj^or- 
tunity he has to watch a machine in operation, ask questions of the 
worker and finally try running the machine when he has a chance. 
In due time the would-be skilled operator will have acquired con- 
siderable knowledge of his pet process, and although the foreman 
would not think of advancing him for some time to come, he soon 
leaves and secures a job elsewhere as an " experienced worker " on the 
process he has so haphazardly " i^icked up." If he can " bluff " the 
job while acquiring the " fine points " he is all right, otherwise he must 
travel the rounds of shoe factories, spoUing material and perhaps 
injuring machines until he has learned enough to hold a job. 

Boys have more difficulty than girls in learning skilled processes. 
Unions for men require that a man shall have worked at his new trade 
for six months before he is permitted to join the union, and two 
friends, members of the union, must vouch for the fact that he has 
fulfilled the requirements. With girls, however, there are no special 
requirements before they can become members of the union. In addi- 
tion, foremen say that women are more likely to help young girls than 
men are to aid boys. Hence one frequently sees a woman showing a 
girl who runs errands and hunts lost shoes how to stitch backstaj^s or 
undertrimming, and in a short time the girl will be found stitching 
backstays while her brother is still working at his first unskilled job. 

Thus the girl has an easier time in advancing to skilled work, whether 
she receives instruction in a school or in the factory. The boy must 
pay a much larger sum to learn one of the most skilled processes in a 
shoemaking school, or, if he tries to " steal " his trade in a factory, 
he finds many of the older men opposed to his advancement, a few 
going so far as to remove parts of their machines before they leave. 

"While the young worker who " steals " his trade has a better chance 
of selecting the process he likes best and of advancing to that operation 
sooner than does the one receiving training in an isolated factory, yet 
bis success depends entirely on the amount of initiative he has. He 
must not only select the process which is to be his goal, without ad- 
vice as to the kind of work for which he is best suited, but he must 
learn that process by overcoming many obstacles in the form of oppo- 
sition on the part of his employer, the union and his fellow workmen. 
To win success under these difficulties a large amount of ambition, 
initiative and grit are the necessary requisites, and the boy or girl who 
is a faithful, plodding worker but yet lacks the necessary " push " 
must, under the present conditions, forever remain in the second-rate 
positions in shoe factories paying only small wages. All they need to 
enable them to advance to the most skilled processes is a chance to 
learn these processes such as part-time schools would offer.^ 

1 For a comparison of the difference in wages at successive ages between boys having shop 
training and technical school training see chart on page 67 and tables on pages 68 and 69 of Douglas 
report, 1906, on "Industrial and Technical Education." 



93 

The following questionnaire was used in connection with unions to 
find out the number of apprentices in the boot and shoe industry. A 
number of unions having as many as 1,800 members report no appren- 
tices. 

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

State Board of Education, 

Ford Building, Boston. 

FORI! 8. 

Name of union. "Boot & Shoe Workers, Local 191." City 

Number of men belonging to union. " About 300." 

Total number of apprentices. " Approximately 15." 

What is the proportion of apprentices to workmen allowed by the union? 

" There is no established rule." 
Is this rule one which is adhered to in all cases, or are special contracts 

made to suit varying conditions? "In this locality we enter into special 

agreements to fit the case." 
How long is it considered necessary for an apprentice to serve in this 

branch of the trade, or what is the period of apprenticeship? "Two to 

three years." 
At what minimum age are apprentices taken? "16." 
Is a wider knowledge of the business considered necessary for efficient 

work in this branch of the trade ? " Yes." 
Would such knowledge mean promotion in the business? " Yes." 
Eemarks : " The young men employed as trimming cutters are sometimes 

known as apprentices as they are generally promoted to journeymen 

cutters from that branch." 



COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

State Board of Education, 

Ford Building, Boston. 

form 8. 

Name of union. " Goodyear Operators Independent Union." City 

Number of men belonging to union. " 290." 

Total number of -apprentices. "8." 

What is the proportion of apprentices to workmen allowed by the union? 

" One desiring to learn this branch of shoemaking requests permission 

of union. If we are unable to supply skilled help, permit is usually 

granted." 
Is this rule one which is adhered to in all cases, or are special contracts 

made to suit varying conditions? "No contracts made." 
How long is it considered necessary for an apprentice to serve in this 

branch of the trade, or what is the period of apprenticeship? "At least 

six months." 
At what minimum age are apprentices taken? " 18." 
Is a wider knowledge of the business considered necessary for efficient 

work in this branch of the trade? "Yes." 
Would such knowledge mean promotion in the business? "Naturally." 
Eemarks : 



94 



The following is a study made of a large shoe factory which gives 
special care to the training of young workers : — 

1. At what age are they admitted to the factory? 
Fourteen years and upwards. 

2. (a) To what Jcind of occupations are they admitted upon entering 
the factory? 



Boys. 
Dinkers. 

Trimming cutters. 
Pattern boys. 
Welt pounders. 
Welt beaters. 
Heel seat tackers. 
Heeler boys. 
Sluggers. 

Assemblers (last room). 
Rack boys. 
Last boys. 
Stampers. 



Girls. 
Bow makers. 
Pressors. 
Reinforcers. 
Upper blackers. 
Thread trimmers. 
Match markers. 
Taggers. 

Heel piece placers. 
Lacers. 
Buttoners. 
Tip fixers. 
Edge brushers. 



Boys and Girls. 
Messengers. 
Station workers. 
Cementers. 
Edge blackers. 
Heel blackers. 
Office workers : — 

Checkers. 

Addressers. 



(6) At what age are they admitted to the different occupations? 
There is no particular age for entering any occupation. 

3. Are they trained for the work of a machine or in a process while they 
are engaged in unsTcilled occupations, or do they enter upon the worlc at 
such machines when they begin their employment? 

A few receive permits which enable them to learn a skilled operation 
when work is slack or at lunch hour, but usually the worker is transferred 
at once to the job which he is to learn. 

4. Are any or all of them trained hy instruction at machines before they 
enter the factory on the wage-earning basis at all? 

No. They earn from the beginning. They are supposed to be on piece 
wage, but as they cannot make a fair wage at the start, the company makes 
it up so that each worker has at least $3.50 a week. 

5. Is the time devoted to their training at the worTc given at the ex- 
pense of the company or at the expense of the worTcer? 

All young workers are trained at the expense of the company. Older 
men occasionally work without pay in order to learn a new process. The 
company allows this when it is short of help in these operations. 

6. (a) If the worTcer who is engaged in unsTcilled worTc in the factory 
wishes to advance, is Tie required to devote a portion or all of his time for 
a given period to training for a better job? 

No. 

(6) Or may he divide his time worTcing part time in his wage-earning 
occupation and spend part time training for tTie new worTc? 

Yes, if he has a permit and his own work is slack. If he is busy he can 
give no time to learning except lunch hour. A permit is given to a boy or 
girl who (a) lives in the neighborhood; (&) shows talent; (c) is anxious 
to learn. 



95 

7. 7s the helper system employed as a cheap method in training the 
worlcer? By helper system is meant a scheme whereby an operative who 
already Tcnows the machine instructs the netv person. 

This is the most economical method and is used when only a few workers 
are being trained. When a large number is taken on, the foreman or a 
regular teacher — if the foreman is too busy — gives the training. The 
teacher is taken from the operators, is paid about $20, and when the train- 
ing is over goes back to the machine. 

8. Are extra supervisors or teachers or certain foremen or assistants 
and second hands assigned to the duty of training the neiu workers? 

Yes. If the foreman is free to teach, he does so, otherwise a teacher 
must be chosen from the operatives. 

9. ILow long does it talce to give the necessary preliminary training to 
the new worlcer? It is suggested that the answer to this question will 
probably have to be made by different machines or processes rather than 
in any form of general statement. 

The time taken to learn various processes ranges from ten minutes to 
some months. Such jobs as errands, pressing and cementing are learned 
at once. Beginners are not put on machines unless help is needed; such 
processes as skiving might take as long as two months. It is impossible 
to give even the approximate time of learning as it varies so much with 
every beginner. ' 

10. To ivhat extent does the time necessary for the training of the 
tuorlcer vary according to the Mnd of machine or process, the age of the 
worlcer, the intelligence of the ivorlcer and the aptitude of the worlcer for 
the job? 

The time varies indirectly with the intelligence and aptitude of the 
worker for the job and directly Avith the age. In all processes that are 
not too complicated the very young workers learn most quickly; they are 
more impetuous and less afraid of accidents, and are swift in their motions. 
If not impeded by overcrowding or other causes, an intelligent worker 
can reach his best work as early as nineteen. 

11. Are the regular machines on the floor of the shop used for the train- 
ing of the worlcer or are special machines set apart from time to time, at 
least for the taslc? 

Formerly the company ran a kind of kindergarten in a special room, but 
now the learners go in line with the regular workers. 

12. Is the worlcer trained on an exercise or on a productive basis? 
Productive. 

13. If on a productive basis what is done with spoiled worlc? 

It is if possible repaired, if not, thrown away. Very little material is 
spoiled, as learners are not put on a job that is too difficult for them. 

14. What arrangement, if any, is made for giving the worlcer any pay 
for the output of the process carried on during the training? 

Credit is given on piece basis for work done. As this means a very 
low weekly wage for some weeks, the company makes it up to the extent 
of $3.50 to $5 for girls and $5 to $6 for boys, according to the difficulty 
of the operation. Occasionally it happens that a man worker is badly 
needed for a skilled operation, in which case he is paid at the rate of $12 
a week while learning. 



96 

15. In training the worker for the new position which of the following 
points or factors are dealt with and to what extent? 

All these factors are taken into account. There is no scientific manage- 
ment in the sense of analyzing the various movements and eliminating 
unnecessary ones. 

(c) Manipulative sTcill. 

The fastest worker is regarded as the one who has most manipulative 
skill. He is taken from the machine occasionally to show the other workers 
how to acquire speed and handle material deftly. 

(&) Speed and output. 

The young learners are discouraged from speeding at the start. Their 
one aim is to avoid mistakes, and no attempt is made at speeding until the 
work is perfect. 

(c) Elimination of waste. 

There is little danger of waste as the learners handle only small pieces 
of material which have been previously cut. 

(d) Safeguards against seconds. 

A learner is rarely put on a job until he has proved himself able for it, 
so that he spoils comparatively little. 

(e) Prevention of accidents. 

Very few machines are at all dangerous, and the learner is shown the 
parts of the machine which may be dangerous. 

(/) Information about material dealt with and how to deal with it. 

(g) Scientific management in so far as it relates to the elimination of 
unnecessary movements and awTcward movements in the worJc. 

16. (a) To what extent is there any system .in use whereby operatives 
who show sMll at one machine acquire an opportunity to secure practice at 
other machines? 

It is the aim of the company that their operatives shall be able to run 
several machines. It is always made clear to the young people that any 
one who is anxious to learn and get a better job can do so. Skilled jobs 
are always to be had. When the foreman notices that a learner is bright 
he asks him if he is anxious to learn some other operations. If he is, he 
receives a permit. He can often select the operation in which he vdshes 
to be trained, but on the whole the workers show very little discrimination 
in choosing jobs for which they are adapted. 

(b) To what extent, while this is being done, does this shilled operative 
seeMng skill at another machine receive oversight and instruction? 

One of the older workers is usually made responsible for the work on 
his line, and he frequently examines the learner's work. 

17. What arrangement, if any, is made for the previous training of 
those who are especially set aside or given the tasTc of training others? In 
other words, to tvhat extent does the plant train its own teachers or fore- 
men? 

None. The foreman talks with a worker whom he selects as teacher and 
explains to him what he wants done. It is assumed that the best operator 
will make the best teacher. If he does not make good, another operator is 
chosen and he returns to his machine. 

18. Which of the folloiving aims has the firm in vieiv in its present 
scheme of training its operatives? Importance of each. 



97 

a, d, e, and g are the most important aims in the training; g is probably 
the most important of all. 

(a) The attracting of desirable workers to the plant. 

The fact that the workers know they can learn in a shop is a powerful 
inducement to their coming. 

(&) The making of some undesirable workers at the outset into desir- 
able workers. 

This is very rarely done, if at all. 

(c) The utilisation of women and children to an extent not usually found 
in a shoe factory. 

On the contrary, women and children are less utilized than in other 
shops. 

{d) The obtaining of a class of luorkers who, because of training, can 
be iitilised at a number of different machines or processes. 

This is one of the company's chief aims. (See 17 a.) 

(e) The securing of greater speed and a larger output on the part of 
the worker. 

The company believes that workers who are carefully taught at the be- 
ginning must ultimately arrive at a greater speed than the worker who picks 
up his trade and has never been corrected, though he may work in a 
roundabout way. 

(/) The acquainting of the worker with more activities of tjie factory 
to make him business wise or industry wise. 

This is done, but to no very great extent. The worker is shown, however, 
what opportimities there are for a boy or girl with ability. 

{g) The laying of the foundation, particularly in the case of boys, of 
a knowledge of the factory that will bring about after a while a desirable 
type of second hand, assistant and foreman. 

This has always been aimed at and has been proved successful. Every 
foreman in the factory is an old employee of the company. In no case 
has it been obliged to bring in a foreman from outside. Almost all the 
heads of the firm as well as the foremen have been with the company since 
they were boys. The president worked for many years in the office and the 
vice-president was formerly a salesman. 

19. Are there any methods of scientific management of the factory, 
organized division of labor, utilisation of schemes, safeguards against 
waste, etc., that' are peculiar to the factory and that have made the scheme 
of training practically necessary or desirable? 

There is no scientific management in the sense in which it has been 
introduced into other factories. The firm believes that the best way to 
secure good work is by removing all inefficient workers, and thus keeping 
the standard high. The foremen and department superintendents have 
decided, after long experience, what each job is worth. A job, for instance, 
ought to bring a good operator $25 a week. If he falls below this con- 
stantly, the foreman examines his case, and when he finds that the workman, 
through his own inefficiency, is not able to keep pace with the others, he 
removes him to some easier job. 

20. In the opinion of the company is the present scheme of training 
workers proving to be profitable? 

Yes. 



98 

(a) Do they give the company more efficient luorJcF 

Yes. Workers who are carefully taught must necessarily be more effi- 
cient than people who steal their trades. 

(b) Can sMlIed help be secured for a lower wage in this way? 

No, for employees who have been trained in the shop work side by side 
with the workers who come from outside. 

(c) Are they loyal to and do they remain with the company? 

On the whole, yes; but there are many exceptions. A great many leave 
before they have been really taught. Of those who learn, from one third 
to one half remain, while a fair number come back again after working 
for a few years in other places. 

(d) What is the attitude of the older workers to the training of these 
apprentices? 

As a rule, the training is taken as a matter of course. In a few highly 
paid jobs the men resent the training, though not very actively. Their 
resentment is shown by unwillingness to help the young worker, and occa- 
sionally by putting obstacles in his way. The reason for this is to prevent 
an oversupply in the highly paid jobs. 

21. What operations are performed by women and boys in this factory 
that are performed by men at the union wage in other factories? 

This cannot be answered accurately. The firm believes that women are 
employed on fewer operations than in many union factories, and in much 
fewer than the nonunion shops. Women do ironing in a great many shops 
but here it is done by men. Eooms in which women work: stitching room, 
casing-up room, sole leather room, bottoming room, edge trimming room. 
Rooms in which women do not work: lasting room, ironing room, welt room. 

22. By what device, if any, are the most efficient and brightest hands 
trained for jobs which offer opportunity for higher slcill and promotion? 

The brightest operators are given permits to learn a skilled operation. 
If there is need of help in the latter operation the foreman or teacher 
trains the learners, if not, the learner arranges with some other worker 
(usually a particular friend) to teach him at od;d times. Sometimes the 
learner pays a worker to teach him, but this is very rare. (Amount paid not 
known.) 

23. Does the system in use at the factory alloxo for promotions of 

those hands who demonstrate their ability to jobs of a higher earning 
capacity than those which they are now occupying ? 

As workmen in the high-priced jobs leave from time to time the firm 
always tries to fill their places with its own employees instead of bringing 
in help from outside. It is impressed upon all young workers that there 
are always good jobs waiting if they will train for them. 



99 



Appendix E . 



PRACTICABILITY OF PART-TIME SCHOOLING. 

I. StANDPOIKTS IfROM WHICH IT IS CONSIDERED. 

In the present discussion, the practicability of part-time schooling is 
considered from three points of view. (1) From the standpoint of the 
workers: {a) Are they capable of being educated so that they can 
profit by the instruction and training offered? (5) Will such training 
help them in the industry? (c) Is their economic condition such that 
they can stand a possible reduction in wage while taking the work? (2) 
From the standpoint of school organization: (a) Can a school be so 
organized as to give training which will help workers to better their con- 
dition in the industry? (&) Can it give training which will broaden the 
outlook of the workers along social and civic lines? (c) Cdn enough 
time be taken from the industry to make such teaching practicable? (d) 
Can teachers be secured? (e) Can the proper equipment be obtained? 
(3) From the standpoint of the organization of industry: (a) Can 
time be taken during the working hours for attendance upon a school? 
(b) Can the work done by young people be so arranged that two can 
work on the same job, and can the extra help necessary to inaugurate 
a plan of part-time schooling be secured? (c) Will school training aid 
the industry? (d) Will employers co-operate? 

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to answer these questions on 
a statistical basis. Figures which show the number who say that they 
would attend such courses are unreliable and at best only a rough 
indication of the attitude of the workers. Some schools are already 
giving satisfactory training along a number of different lines, but only 
further experiment can determine how successfully they can do work 
along other lines. 

II. Attitude of Employees. 

One of the most important considerations in the working out of this 
problem is the willingness of employers to co-operate with the school. 
Experience in the development of this work during the past five years 
has shown that at first comparatively few employers are ready to so 
co-operate, but after a school has demonstrated its value, the majority 
of the manufacturers are disposed to organize their business in such a 
way that they can allow their young workers time to attend the part- 
time school. The following table shows the attitude of 71 employers 
towards a plan of part-time schooling. The great majority of these 



100 



favored the alternating weekly plan on a half-time basis. An exception 
to this is found in the case of department stores, where the only plan 
submitted was for a period of eight hours per week. 



Table I. — Attitude of manufacturers toward plan of part-time 

training. 



iNDUSTRr. 


Time for school 
work proposed . 


Number 
in favor. 


Number ^ , 
opposed. ■^'"*'- 


Percent- 
age 
in favor. 


Department stores. 

Printing 

Machine work, .... 
Shoe manufacturing, . 
Bookbinding, .... 
Textile work 


8 hours per week. 
Half time, . 
Half time, . 
Half time, . 
Half time, . 
Half time, . 


10 
9 
16 
10 
2 
3 


1 
3 
3 
4 
11 


10 
10 
19 
13 
6 
13 


100 
90 
84 
77 

33H 
27 



The above table seems to show that where skill and training are 
required the manufacturers are, on the whole, in favor of co-operating 
with the school. The plans submitted suggested the alternating weekly 
scheme. The form of schedule used is found on pages 108 and 109, 
" Shoe Study." 

It will be noted that all of the department-store employers were 
in favor of the plan, which may indicate that the inquiry was eon- 
fined to those stores which had had experience with this kind of work 
or were familiar with what has been done in other stores. 

One printing establishment is recorded as opposed to the plan, and 
in this ease the chief objections given were two : the difficulty of ar- 
ranging shifts because of the great amount of individuality required in 
the work; and the fear that a public school could do no really practical 
and helpful work to aid the printing industiy. The favorable attitude 
on the part of the other 9 was due to at least three causes: (a) a 
realization of the fact that some of the training given in the regular 
public schools now is of value in the printing business, and that a 
course of study planned for the particular industry would be of greater 
value; (b) printing is not a large child-employing industry; almost 
all of the young workers enter at seventeen years or older, and are 
obliged to spend a year in the business before they become valuable 
workers; if young people were to enter the industry at fourteen or 
fifteen years of age on a half-time basis, spending the other half of 
their time in a vocational school, at seventeen years of age their services 
would be decidedly more valuable than is the case at the present time; 
in addition, their capacity for growth and development in the industry 
would be increased many fold; (c) the difficulty of giving in the 
printing office the proper instruction to the new workers. 



101 

In machine shops only 2 out of 19 to which agents were sent were 
opposed to the plan. In this industry it has been demonstrated beyond 
a doubt that a plan of part-time schooling will receive the hearty sup- 
port of the manufacturers when they have learned what the school 
proposes to do and it has proved that it can do it.^ All those who were 
opposed had had no experience with part-time training. Some of those 
who expressed themselves enthusiastically in favor of a plan of part- 
time training were opposed to such a plan when approached during 
the jDrevious study made by the Commission on Industry and Technical 
Education. 

A great majority of the shoe manufacturers who were interviewed 
are in favor of the plan; yet they have had no experience whatever 
along these lines, and the work offered abroad gives nothing in the 
way of experience from which they can draw conclusions. They do, 
however, know that a number of workers have gone to Germany and 
received valuable all-round training for the shoe business, and they 
are heartily in favor of any scheme which would approximate the same 
kind of instruction. 

The majority of the employers running bookbinding and textile 
establishments were opposed to the plan. The binding tr&de is so 
small that this opposition need be given little weight. The textile 
industry, on the other hand, is the largest child-employing industry 
in Massachusetts, and those who are recorded in favor of a half-time 
plan favored it for selected groups, not for the young textile workers 
as a whole. Five representatives of the textile industry in Lawrence 
stated that they were willing to take all the boys the schools would 
send them on a half-time basis, so that these boys might continue their 
general and si^eeial education while in school, and so that the mills 
would have this additional amount of help, with the possibility that 
a few might continue in the mill business. 

III. Effect on the Industry. ^ 
Department Stores. 
In department stores only 2.5 per cent, of the total number of 
workers are estimated as being under seventeen years of age. With 
the plan worked out in the Women's Educational and Industrial Union 
school for salesmanship, only a slight increase in the Avorking force, 
if any, would be necessary. If efficient work is done with these people 
while attending school there should be no economic loss to the industry 
if time for such training is allowed without any reduction in pay. In 
fact, it has been demonstrated that it is a paying proposition for the 
firms to allow this time to be taken.^ 

1 See Appendix E, and opinions of manufacturers, pp. 117-119. > See Appendix G, p. 147. 



102 



Printing and Publishing. 
It is estimated that in printing and publishing establishments about 
4 per cent, of the total number of workers are under seventeen years 
of age. The work is individual in its character, and in a rough way 
may be compared with certain establishments in the machine industry, 
where successful work in part-time instruction has already been done, 
and it will be no more difficult to work out a plan of part-time school- 
ing for this industry than for the machine shops. Enough work has 
been done in the teaching of printing and related subjects to demon- 
strate that training can be given in the school which will make the 
boy more valuable to the employer. This is illustrated by the fact that 
it is difficult for one school which is now operating both a full-time 
and part-time printing course to kee^j the boys in school after they 
have had a year's training, as they are offered unusually high wages 
in the trade, which attract them from the school. 

Machine Industry. 
The statistics available would seem to indicate that only about 2 per 
cent, of those employed in machine shops are under seventeen years 
of age. Judging from the numbers actually found in certain machine 
shops during this investigation, and from other studies, it is appar- 
ent that this percentage is much too small to represent the true num- 
ber.^ The class of work is such that it is much more difficult to so 
arrange that one worker shall take up and carry on the work of an- 
other than in such an industry as textiles, but the value of the training 
given has been found to more than compensate for the difficulty of 
making the arrangement. Many employers are disposed to give five 
hours a week without a reduction in pay, as they believe that in the 
end they will get more intelligent and efficient service. 

Shoe Manufacturing. 
In the shoe industry the percentage reported under seventeen years 
of age is 5.6, but this will vary very much with the community. Union- 
ized centers and factories doing the highest grade of work have a 
smaller percentage than the nonunionized centers and the ones in which 
a cheaper grade of work is done. In either case there is a disposition 
on the part of the manufacturer to co-operate.^ 

1 In the city of Quincy alone, which cannot be considered a machine center, 229 workers between 
fourteen and seventeen years of age were employed in machine shops, almost one third of the total 
number. 

2 See chapter on "Apprenticeship," and p. 107. 



103 



Bookbinding. 
Sixteen per cent, of the total number employed in bookbinding are 
under seventeen years. The trade is, however, so small by comparison 
with many of the others that there should be little if any difficulty in 
getting enough young workers to take the places of those who are 
attending school. In the case of girls there would be little if any ad- 
vantage to the industry from a plan of part-time schooling. In the 
case of boys, a general training such as might be given for a machine 
trade would be of considerable advantage in the understanding of 
operations and maintenance of machines. The largest establishments 
in this industry seem to be undergoing a change, and substituting 
rather complicated machines to do much of the work formerly done 
by hand. 

Textile Industry. 
In the textile industry the per cent, of workers under seventeen years 
of age is 9. The supply of young help is apparently insufficient for a 
half-time plan. It is believed, however, that a half-time plan to con- 
tinue the general and vocational education of a considerable number of 
young people could be operated without any detriment to the industry ; 
in fact, it will be an advantage to the industry to get the additional 
amount of help. There are probably enough young people idle to fill 
the places made vacant by having the workers in this industry attend 
school from five to eight hours per week, possibly longer.^ 



Table II. — Number of children I4 years of age at work in cotton mills of 
Fall River from truant officer's report, and number of children granted 
age and schooling certificates to work in the same cotton mills for the 
same year. 





Truant officers' 

report of 

number at 

work, 14 years 

of age. 

1. 


Age and schooling 
certificates. 


MILL. 


14 years, 

3 months and 

under. 

2. 


Over 14 years, 

3 months 
and under 15. 

3. 


No. 1 

No. 2 

No. 3 

No. 4 

No. 5 

No. 6 

No. 7 

No. 8, 

No. 9 

No. 10 

No. 11 


35 
19 
6 
1 
4 
12 
26 
13 
3 
15 
2 


9 

37 
11 
15 
21 
17 
51 
24 

2 
20 
20 


5 

12 

1 

4 

5 

10 

10 

9 

3 

7 

1 



1 See number and age of schooling certificates granted and number actually employed in dif- 
ferent cities for the same ages. Table II. , Appendix A, and Table II. of this appendix show that 
about one half as many between fourteen and fifteen years of age are employed as there were 
schooling certificates granted for the different mills in Fall River between these ages. 



104 



Table II. — [^Number of children 14 years of age at work in cotton mills of 
Fall River from truant officer's report, and number of children granted 
age and schooling certificates to work in the same cotton mills for the 
same ijear — Concluded. 







Age and schooling 




Truant officers' 
report of 


CERTIFICATES. 








MILL. 


number at 

work, 14 years 

of age. 


14 yrs, 
3 months and 


Over 14 years, 
3 months 




under. 


and under 15. 




1. 


2. 


3. 


No. 12 


12 


20 


4 


No. 13 


2 


14 


3 


No. 14, 


10 


26 


9 


No. 15 


- 


2 


1 


No. 16 


5 


6 


1 


No. 17 


Ages not given 


103 


27 


No. 18, 


17 


29 


4 


No. 19 


3 


2 


- 


No. 20 


104 


71 


11 


No. 21 


37 


51 


5 


No. 22 


8 


23 


4 


No. 23 


10 


17 


4 


No. 24 • . 


5 


- 


- 


No. 25 


23 


23 


2 


No. 26 


18 


58 


8 


No. 27, 


9 


16 


5 


No. 28 


17 


11 


2 


No. 29 


4 


11 


2 


No. 30 


6 


- 


- 


No. 31 


9 


34 


10 


No. 32 


10 


32 


4 


No. 33 


9 


17 


5 


No. 34 


7 


29 


10 


No. 35 


18 


20 


2 


No. 36 


13 


28 


5 


No. 37 


2 


12 


2 


No. 38 


12 


20 


5 


No. 39 


17 


31 


5 


No. 40 


13 


20 


4 


No. 41 


Ages not given 


30 


4 


No. 42 


11 


16 


8 


Totals, 


547 


999 


223 



This table shows that less than one-half as many are employed 
as hold age and schooling certificates. 



IV. Previous Experiments in Part-time Schooling. 
Department Stores. 
Part-time schools have been operated for periods of from five to 
eight hours each week in connection with department stores in the. 
following places : Boston, co-operating with the school for salesmanship 
of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union and the Boston 
public schools, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kalamazoo, San Fran- 
cisco, and the Wanamaker stores of Philadelphia and New York, 



105 



Printing and Publishing. 

Part-time work on the alternating half-day plan is successfully 
operated in one of the large printing houses of Chicago. A plan of 
spending three days in the school and three days in the print shop 
has been working for a year in Newton, Mass. In Cincinnati, 40 boys 
from printing offices are attending a part-time school five hours per 
week. 

Machine Shops. 

Classes on a half-time basis have been successfully operated in Cleve- 
land and Cincinnati. The Cincinnati machine shops have also been 
sending 300 apprentices to a part-time or continuation school for a 
period of five hours per Aveek. The school operated in Beverly is 
conducted on the half-time plan, and the shop work done in the school 
is a part of the productive work of the factory. Similar work is being 
done in Newton, Quincy and Worcester, and plans are being made to 
operate other classes in Illinois, Waterbury, Conn., and other places. 

Shoe Manufacturing. 

As 3'et there have been no part-time experiments in connection with 
shoe manufacturing. Schools giving training similar to that suggested 
in the programs. Appendix F, have been successfully operated in 
Wernelkerchen, Prussia, and in England. The majority of the foreign 
part-time schools are for " hand shoe workers." See Appendix D, 
on "Apprenticeship." 

Textile Industry. 

The half-time schools in England take children under fourteen years 
of age employed in the textile industry. The instruction is general 
rather than vocational in its character, and from the standpoint of the 
school is unsatisfactory. In Fitchburg, Mass., one textile establishment 
has 12 boys on a half-time alternating weekly plan. In Lowell a 
number are attending a school on Sunday afternoons. This is here 
classed as continuation school work rather than as part-time instruction, 
because no time is taken from the working day. 

Candy Making. 
The only part-time or continuation school work done in connection 
with this industry is found in the continuation school department of 
the Boston public schools. Ninety girls employed in candy-making 
establishments are attending these schools four hours per week during 
working hours. When the manufacturers consented to send girls to 
these schools they felt that they would be compensated for the time 
taken for school work by better and more interested service when the 
girls returned to the candy factory, even though the work given, which 



106 

is along the line of training for the home, personal hygiene, etc., has 
no direct relation to the work of the factory. At any rate, they are 
willing to give up the time and charge it to welfare work if it is a 
complete loss to the factory. 

Other Industries. 

Half-time plans have also been operated in the following lines: 
general office work, including filing, shipping, billing, etc., pattern 
making, drafting, iron moulding, tinsmithing, saw making and car- 
pentry. A class in brick laying and carpentry has attended school 
full time for a portion of the dull season each year for a period of 
six years in the city of Chicago. Arrangements have been already 
made to conduct classes in the following lines of work on a half-time 
basis: belt making, electrical work, automobile and carriage building, 
ship caulking, plumbing, blacksmithing, coppersmithing, steam fitting, 
riveting, sheet-iron working, and the operation of power sewing 
machines. 

One of the most difficult problems which the part-time school will 
have to work out is the program of training for the small community 
with only a few young workers in each occupation, and for the group 
in larger places, made up of a few workers from miscellaneous occu- 
pations. It is difficult to see how such training can to any extent be 
vocational in its character, since few, if any, of these people will have 
a common experience or common needs. It therefore seems that the 
only possible work which can be offered for such classes will be along 
the line of general or liberal training if they are at all likely to stay 
in their present occupation. With such classes in the city, it should 
be possible to find teachers who are sufficiently skilled to be able to 
use the practical experience of the individual as a basis for teaching, 
and show how the fundamental subjects of reading, writing and arith- 
metic, and training in citizenship, can be applied to every-day life. 
With such classes in small communities, the teaching problem is very 
much more difficult than in the city, and it will be almost impossible 
to secure competent teachers for the amount which is usually paid. 

V. Attitude of the Workers. 
The experiment conducted in connection with the department stores 
in the school for salesmanship of the Women's Educational and In- 
dustrial Union and the Boston public schools shows that the young 
workers affected are almost universally in favor of taking part-time 
schooling. Many cannot afford, however, a reduction in wage, but the 
department stores have so far been willing to give them the time with- 
out such reduction, and it is believed that if the public school will do 
efficient, thorough work, the management of the department stores in 
general will co-operate. 



107 

Very little data for the printing and publishing industry are avail- 
able, but the few boys who have started printing courses in the all-day 
vocational schools have, whenever they have obtained a position on a 
part-time basis, been glad to continue in the school, sacrificing one- 
half of their earnings for the privilege. 

Those employed in the machine shops can well afford a reduction 
in wage sufficiently large to enable them to attend one half the time. 
They realize the need of this work and wish to do it. The exception 
to this is found where boys are employed as specialists on different 
machines in shops where they are not given the opportunity to change 
to other machines, and so use the knowledge gained in the school. 

The young people employed in shoe manufacturing can afford a re- 
duction in wages, and the majority seem to realize the need of training 
and want it. Thirty-seven and one half per cent., however, do not 
want such training, and would not be willing to make the sacrifice in 
wage. 

In the textile business children could afford some reduction in wage. 
They are about equally divided on the question of the desirability of 
jiart-time schooling. Forty-six per cent, of those investigated were 
not in faA^or of any form of part-time schooling, while 54.1^ per cent, 
did want vocational training for the mill or for some trade outside of 
the mill. 

Workers in the candy factories, especially, cannot afford a reduction 
in wage. Fifty-two per cent, of the candy workers were not interested 
in any form of training. Forty-eight per cent, wanted to learn some 
trade outside of the confectionery establishment. 

VI. Detailed Consideration of Industries. 
Boot and Shoe Industry. 

In 1S08, practically all the important shoe manufacturers of Lynn 
declared themselves willing to assist any form of part-time vocational 
school, but preferably one conducted on an alternating weekly plan, 
with provision for full time in the factory during seasons of rush. Of 
the 24 manufacturers whose opinions are recorded in the files of the 
Douglas commission, 21 were in favor; only 3 did not see how they 
could assist. 

The sentiment of the manufacturers has not changed to-day. Ten 
out of 13 large representative factories in Lynn, Brockton, Haverhill, 
Beverly, Marlborough and other shoe towns favor part-time schools; 
2 do not, and 1 is doubtful. The management in one of those not in 
favor is dissuaded because the factory has no dull season, therefore 
a part-time school seems impracticable. In another, the management 
is convinced that the unions would not allow such a scheme to succeed. 
The firm which expressed itself as doubtful was influenced by the 
belief that since Brockton manufactures only a high-grade shoe, it 



108 

would be impossible to emiDloy unskilled help while they are receiving- 
training in school. Now, the lack of a dull season does not constitute 
an insurmountable objection, for any scheme of part-time schooling 
would be even easier of application under conditions which are stable. 
Also, it can be shown that the unions have no legitimate ground for 
objection; that no more would be trained in part-time schools than 
are now allowed by their apprenticeship rules of the union; and that 
such a school would tend to reduce the possibility for the young worker 
to specialize on a man's job. Finally, it is certainly possible in a city 
where a high grade of work is required for the young workers to be 
on unskilled work in the factory and on skilled in the school. The 
returns from the manufacturers may therefore be considered as prac- 
tically unanimous in favor of part-time schools. 

The following questionnaire was used in collecting information, and 
the answers to the questions here given are typical of those received 
from practically all who made returns : — 

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
Part-time Schooling Investigation, Chapter 64, Eesolves of 1911. 

Shoe Study. 

Question 1. — Do you have any system of training for young people in 
the business, and if so, in what departments'? 

Answer. — " We have no system of training in any department." 

Question 2. — What kind of training, if any, is needed for the shoe 
business ? 

Answer. — " For general work the principal thing is to get an idea of 
the work going through the factory, and how to assemble various parts 
used in making shoes." 

Question 2a. — Is there a scarcity of skilled operatives of any kind? 

Answer. — " Governed somewhat by general business." 

Question 2b. — Is there a need of foremen or superintendents having a 
knowledge of all the processes of the factory? 

Answer. — " Yes." 

Question 3. — Would it be of advantage to the workers to have a knowl- 
edge of all the different operations in the making of a shoe? 

Answer. — " Yes, for promotion." 

Question 3a. — Would this be an advantage to the business? 

Answer. — " From a broad point of view it would be an advantage." 

Question 4. — Is there a dull season in your factory when training might 
be given? 

Ansiver. — " No." 

Question 5. — Would you approve of a school so organized that young 
people could get a general training in the principal processes of the 
different departments? (This school to be so organized that two Avorkers 
could be employed on each job, alternating every other week, that is, one 
week in the school and one week in the shop; if necessary, both to be em- 
ployed in the shop all the time during rush season and both to attend 
school all the time during the dull season.) 



109 

Answer. — " Yes, if the work could be carried on independent of the 
regular factory work, or, in other words, if the school could be run on 
work designed for that purpose and not interfere with the regular system." 

Question 6. — Would such a system of training make for promotion to 
the commercial or jobbing side of the business? 

Answer. — " Yes." 

Question 7. — Would general knowledge of the manufacture of shoes be 
of advantage to the salesman? 

Answer. — " Most decidedly, yes." 

An expression of opinion of this kind is not surprising, for it is 
certainly true that it would be much cheaper for the manufacturer to 
have his workers trained in school than be obliged to train them in 
the factory, and far better than to leave the training to inefficient 
private schools, or to allow them to pick up or " steal the trade." 

There are some factories in isolated districts in which an effort is 
made to teach the employees in more or less systematic fashion. They 
pay more tha,n the learners really earn, because if they do not the 
young workers will get discouraged and leave, and because it is neces- 
sary, for sake of the good name of a firm, to pay something approach- 
ing a living wage to every employee. Where a school proyides the 
training, it would be possible for the worker to be employed on un- 
skilled work in the factory, on which he could really earn a decent 
wage, until he has acquired sufficient knowledge in the school to enable 
him to earn a fair wage on a better job. Even with training of the 
most general character provided in school, the time necessary to learn 
in the factory would be greatly reduced. There is a direct loss, at 
present, to the industry in the bonus paid to the unskilled worker. 
Beside that, there is the loss due to spoiled work, unnecessary machine 
space and the overhead cost of the instruction. With a careful in- 
structor the item of spoiled work is reduced to a minimum, but the 
other two items it is impossible to reduce. The manufacturer who 
teaches his own help bears a large financial burden, and it is not 
astonishing that he should welcome the assistance of a school. 

There are other factories, in fact whole centers, in which apparently 
nothing is done toward teaching help. In these centers those who have 
facility for picking up or " stealing their trade " flourish, but this is 
an expensive process for the manufacturer. A worker picks up a 
trade by watching an operative until he gets a chance to try the work 
himself; then by working during odd minutes when the machine is 
idle he acquires enough knowledge to " bluff the job." A person who 
is trying to pick up a job is not doing his own work very carefully, 
and a person Avho is " bluffing a job " will spoil more work in a day 
than a green hand under a skilled instructor would spoil in a mouth. 
Of course with these, as with all learners, the machine is not yielding 
its full return. " Stealing " and " bluffing " are similar, except that in 
" stealing " the worker picks up his trade without the knowledge of 



110 

the head of the room and is therefore likely to do more damage. The 
practice survives, because the manufacturers hope to draw all their 
skilled help either from other towns or from other shops. A large 
portion of the skilled help does come from outside, but there are still 
many of the young people of the shoe cities who wish to enter the 
trade. To them the gates are closed, and they must scale them to the 
detriment of all concerned in some such fashion as has been described. 

It is in these same centers that the piivate shoe school flourishes. 
These schools charge from $5 to $75 to teach a job, depending on the 
kind. If they really did efficient work there would be no objection 
to them, except the expense to the pupils, who are largely foreigners, 
— the illiterate, poverty-oppressed, unintelligent newcomers, the group 
least able to afford the training. But the schools do not do efficient 
work. In spite of the high cost of tuition, their pupils are less desired 
by the manufacturers than green hands. The school simply gives 
them what the first stage of the " picking-up process " does, a basis 
for a " bluff." When they leave the school they soon find that their 
training is no recommendation, so they pose as skilled hands, and 
enter on their career of spoiling work and getting " fired," until ex- 
perience at last makes them really skilled. It is evident that this 
method of learning is a costly one for the manufacturer. Undoubtedly 
it would be cheaper for all concerned, except perhaps the few smaU 
shops which do custom work and employ only the highest priced 
workers, to support the State in an effort to establish part-time schools. 

Replacing Pupils. — No manufacturer objected to the plan on the 
score that there is a shortage of help among the fourteen to seventeen 
year old workers. The number of children employed in this and in 
the other skilled and semiskilled industries is a very small proportion 
of the total number. There is a very large supply of unskilled help, 
just as there is a vei-y limited supply of skilled help.^ It would there- 
fore be perfectly possible to get the extra force required to conduct 
a scheme of part-time schooling. 

Unions. — The manufacturers look for objections to such a plan on 
the part of the labor unions. The unions might very properly object 
if the purpose of this training were to produce none but specialized 
workmen on the big-priced jobs, -or if such a result were to be inevi- 
table. Of course that is not what the school aims to do; it aims to 
give such a general knowledge of the trade as to open the way to 
future advancement in the trade along the usual channels, guarded in 
whatever way the unions may see fit to guard them. The purpose is to 
prepare young people to work towards the top, but it could not give 
them training which would enable them to begin to work immediately 
on any highly skilled work. As a matter of fact, the schools will tend 

' Opinions differ here. The unions report that there are always skilled men who are unem- 
ployed, and the manufacturers report that they cannot get enough skilled help or forenaen. 



Ill 

to keep those few young workers who could succeed in overstepping the 
barriers set up by the union from specializing early. They could do 
exactly what the unions aim to do, — serve to keep the men's jobs for 
men. The unions do not object to schools whose purpose is general 
training, and it is probable that a complete understanding of the situa- 
tion will remove all objections. 

The local unions, including cutters, treers, heelers, sole fasteners, 
rough rounders, stockfitters and Goodyear operators, which have more 
or less uniform rules as to the number of new people to be admitted 
to the separate trades, teach or allow to be taught annually an average 
of 4.9 per cent, of the total membership of the union. Now there are 
only 3 per cent, of the total number employed in shoes between four- 
teen and seventeen, and only one third of the number, or 1 per cent., 
would finish the school training each year. There are, it is true, some 
unions which do not allow any one to learn the trade practiced by its 
members, but there are others which place no restriction of this sort, 
and the latter are larger in number though not so jDowerful as the 
others. 

There is very little help to be gained from previous experiments 
abroad. There are continuation schools for shoemakers' apprentices 
in Vermelskirchen, Breslau, Munich, Erfurt and Hanover, but only in 
Vermelskirchen is there any system of training for the factory worker. 
The American consul at Breslau says that " 176 shoemakers' appren- 
tices are instructed in special classes, attention being paid to the ma- 
terial with which they work and the problems connected with their 
profession, whereas the ordinary shoe-factory employees are classed 
with delivery boys and other unskilled workers, and given only a very 
general instruction." 

At Erfurt the situation is similar. " The shoemaker class of the 
above school [evening trade school] is organized chiefly for the benefit 
of the journeymen in the workshops, and not for the workers in shoe 
factories. As the latter are either mere operatives or masters of but 
one branch of the shoemaking industry, they could put to little or no 
practical use most of the many-sided instructions given in a trade 
school intended primarily for the shoemakers who make shoes to 
measure." That is, it is apparent that in Germany the hand workmen 
and the small shop are still the largest and most honored part of the 
shoemaking industry; that the apprenticeship system still persists for 
these hand workers, and is further supplemented by school instruction; 
and that no plans have been made for the training of the factory 
worker. It is an entirely different problem here, where the hand work- 
men are an exceedingly small proportion of the total number employed, 
and are growing less each year. 

In Vermelskirchen there has been for some time a shoe school in 
which all the machine operations of the factory have been successfully 



112 

taught. It has also taught new systems and ideas in factory manage- 
ment, but has not presented that wider aspect of civic and industrial 
life which should be presented to the young working citizen. The 
school at Vermelskirchen is a full-time day school, running forty-four 
hours a week, with thirty- four hours of practical work and ten hours 
of theoretical. 

The German schools have many suggestions for the trade training 
of our young workers, but their programs would need supi^lementing 
on the liberal side. 

In Great Britain there are nine school centers for factory workers, 
London, Bristol, Northampton, Leicester, Stafford, Leeds, Glasgow, 
Cork and Dublin. Some have both day and night courses, and some, 
such as the Northampton schools, are merely night schools, but there 
are no part-time schools. The students in the day schools are usually 
the sons of owners or superintendents, while the students in evening 
schools are factory or shop workers of three or more years' experience. 
The instruction covers all the operations, as well as the study of dif- 
ferent kinds of material, shop management, etc. This instruction, as 
well as that in the German schools, can furnish much helpful informa- 
tion on the technical side, but it has nothing to suggest for the relating 
of other training to the work. In this larger aspect the schools of 
Massachusetts will be the first of their kind. 

Textile Industry. 
The owners and superintendents of textile mills appear to be less 
cordial to the idea of part-time schooling than are shoe manufacturers, 
but from the records of the industrial commission it appears that 
many of the textile manufacturers would be willing to co-operate in 
a plan of part-time schooling. When these same manufacturers were 
approached during this investigation, however, it was found that they 
were willing to consider such a plan for selected groups or a compara- 
tively small number, but were not willing to consider it for the whole 
group between fourteen and seventeen years of age. Of the 14 manu- 
facturers outside of Lawrence who expressed themselves on this ques- 
tion, only 3 were in favor of a plan which would affect the whole group. 
One of these is actually co-operating on a small scale with the part- 
time school in Fitchburg. The 14 whose opinions are on record are 
all responsible people, mill agents or treasurers, the men who in the 
final resort would settle the question for their mills; yet the 50 or so 
overseers and superintendents interviewed said that there was nothing 
in the organization of the work that would prevent such a plan from 
being carried out. Many had seen the plan worked out under similar 
conditions in England and were convinced of its practicability. The 
difficulty which they could foresee would be the scarcity of help of 
this age. They said that it would probably be impossible to work it 



113 

out, since already it is difficult to secure enough young help, and a half- 
time plan would double the demand. 

At a meeting of the 6 textile manufacturers in Lawrence there was 
unanimous indorsement of the part-time plan for selected groups. 
They all felt the need of further education for all their employees, 
and were willing to co-operate in any way possible in a project for 
furnishing it to them. They signified their readiness to take as many 
pairs of boys and girls as the school could furnish on a half-time basis. 
But here, too, the manufacturers foresee great difficulty in securing 
sufficient help to enable them to extend the plan to include all of their 
workers. The manufacturers of Fall River, New Bedford and Lowell 
feel that there is already sufficient opportunity for ambitious young 
people to get training in the evening schools. It is the isolated centers 
which feel most keenly the need for the training. 

It is the difficulty of securing enough young workers that needs most 
to be considered, for it is certainly true that there is already an insuffi- 
cient supply of young unskilled help, and any plan for part-time 
schooling would increase the demand. Eighty per cent, of the age and 
schooling certificates granted in Fall River wei'e granted to children 
to enter the cotton mills. That is, four fifths of all the children in 
Fall River who for one reason or another go to work enter the cotton 
industry. It would, then, apparently be imjDossible to secure an extra 
force, equal to the original, for a half-time plan. 

A more hopeful aspect of this ease is presented by a situation which 
is in itself exceedingly grave in this whole problem of the young 
worker. It was found, by a comparison of the number of age and 
schooling certificates granted to fourteen-year-old workers with the 
number of children found by the truant officers in the mills, that appar- 
ently many enter the industry, stay in it but a very short time, and 
soon join the idlers on the streets. It is from this floating group that 
the part-time school must hope to draw. 

A comparison of the figures in column 1 with those in columns 2 and 
3 in Table II., page 103, shows that about twice as many secure age 
and schooling certificates as are found at work in the mill. This can- 
not be due to the taking of certificates for summer employment as it 
was found that very few, if any, do this. Once they leave school they 
rarely return, and they apparently do not remain at work. 

It is impossible to predict just what the cotton manufacturers would 
do if part-time schooling were to be made compulsory. Many stated 
that they would not employ these young workers unless they could do 
so for full time; others were doubtful, and wished to see what their 
neighbors would do. In all probability, many manufacturers would 
cease to employ boys and girls, but others would hire those discharged. 

It is difficult to determine just what obstacles- will be met in attempt- 
ing to organize the Avork of different departments in the mill so that 



114 

an extra force can be employed to do the same work, and thus avoid 
stopping the machines, while these young workers are attending school. 
Many employers stated emphatically that it would be impossible to 
secure a force of one sixth more young workers, so that those now 
employed could attend school one day per week, approximately one 
sixth of their working time. It was found, however, that in some mills 
just this thing is being done on a small scale, to fill the places of those 
who are out sick. In some cases extra workers, " spare hands," are 
employed regularly; in other cases these extra helpers are hired from 
day to day. 

The problem admits of another solution. Some portion of the 
younger help could be replaced by older help at a higher wage. This 
has been done in some mills, and it has been found that the increased 
wage is more than justified by the greater efficiency of the worker. 
That is, the actual labor cost is lower. Even supposing an actual 
present increase in labor cost through the employment of such older 
help, the far-sighted manufacturer would agree to the proposition since 
it would be the condition for a future reduction in his labor cost. 

It has been stated that older help cannot, for physical reasons, do 
the work which is done by boys and girls, especially in the spinning 
rooms. Two reasons given are that the spinning frames are too low 
for older workers, — a condition which could be met by building them 
higher or blocking them up, — and that the spinners, especially those 
on the finer counts, must begin at twelve or fourteen years of age for 
their fingers to acquire the ability to do the " piecing up." 

No unanimity of opinion was found among the overseers of spin- 
ning rooms who were interviewed. Some claimed that any one could 
learn to do spinning in a few minutes, and some claimed the opposite. 
The obvious answer seems to be that older people are now being taught, 
and the chief investigator learned how to do " piecing up " in a few 
minutes. The finest spinning in the mill is done on the mule, and 
men sixty and seventy years old were found doing this work. The 
mule spinner begins to learn his trade at about eighteen years of age. 

From the point of view of the worker the practicability of a part- 
time plan cannot be seriously questioned. It is true, there is no possi- 
bility at present of inducing the manufacturers to allow their young 
help to go to school without making a reduction in pay proportionate 
to the amount of time allowed, but the children of the textile industry 
have a higher proportionate wage and a lower standard of living than 
those in an unskilled industry. It is always true that the wages of the 
children in an unskilled industry approach more nearly those of adult 
help than they do in a semiskilled industry, such as shoe manufactur- 
ing, or in a skilled industry, such as the machine trade. It is the 
opinion of the investigators, who visited over 300 of the 3'oung textile 
workers, that they could, in most cases, afford the reduction. 



115 

A great deal has been said about the half-time system in force in the 
cotton centers in England. It is entirely different from anything pro- 
posed in this State, being really nothing but a compromise made with 
employers of very young help when the school age was raised to four- 
teen years. It permits children from twelve to fourteen years of age 
to be employed half-time in the mills. There is no attempt at all to 
relate the training in the school to the work in the factory ; it is merely 
the usual gramrpar school course taken in alternate half -days with the 
usual full-time students. It surely must mean either a retardation of 
the full-time gToup or an uncomfortably stiff pace for the half-time 
group; at all events, the system is fast dying a natural death. Man- 
chester, the great cotton center, has practically no half-timers; Bolton, 
Bradford and Oldham still have some, but the number is decreasing 
each year. It is not the manufacturers who have prevented the enact- 
ment of a law forbidding the employment of children under fourteen, 
thus providing full-time school training up to that age; it is the work- 
ing people themselves who do not wish it. They cannot bear, or feel 
that they cannot afford, to forego the slight income which these half- 
timers bring in. The part-time schooling system in England, then, has 
no suggestions to offer to the part-time schools of Massachusetts, except 
that it proves that two persons can work on the same job and change 
every half day. 

In Leicester there is something more nearly approaching the pro- 
posed Massachusetts plan. This school has both day and evening 
courses for the knitting industry. The day school gives a special 
course in knitting on Mondays and Thursdays from 2 to 5 o'clock, 
which is attended by apprentices from the factories and by students 
in other departments of the school who want to get a general knowl- 
edge of conditions in all trades of the vicinity. This school is very 
successful, and is highly regarded by both manufacturers and workers. 

In the German Empire there are many continuation schools for the 
fourteen to seventeen year old group of workers. In some of the 
States attendan-ce is compulsory; in some not, but the tendency is 
decidedly toward compulsory attendance. We know very little about 
the textile instruction there, but if shoe-factory employees are classed 
with errand boys and other unskilled help, and given only the general 
instruction provided for that group, it is hardly to be expected that 
more special instruction would be provided for textile workers. 

Department Stores. 
That a plan of part-time schooling for department stores is prac- 
tical has been proved by the success of the school for salesmanship 
started six years ago by the Women's Educational and Industrial 
Union. There are no material difficulties in the way; the school re- 
quires little or no equipment beyond blackboards and chairs, and the 



116 



stores are favorably inclined to the plan and are willing to send more 
children than the school can accommodate. The difficulty lies in getting 
efficient teachers. The demand for them from the stores has been so 
great that they have been " spoken for " before they have comjDleted 
their training at the Women's Educational and Industrial Union School. 
Good teachers will be expensive, but this difficulty can be properly 
met in time, and with a proper expenditure of money nothing remains 
to make the plan anything but eminently practicable.^ 

Confectionery Industry. 

In several of the large candy factories some of the employees have 
been sent to continuation schools during working hours as a matter 
of philanthropy. These are usually girls who are about to be married, 
and they take their time at the school at the expense of the manu- 
facturers. A more general plan of part-time schooling would be quite 
different from this, however. Twenty-six and five tenths per cent, of 
all the women workers in candy factories are seventeen years of age 
or under. 

The difficulty comes rather from the point of view of the worker, 
whose wages are extremely low. If they were to be " docked " for the 
time spent at the school, it would be a severe hardship. 



Cumulative number and percentage of women wage earners irwesti- 
gated in candy factories under eighteen years of age, classified hy 
earnings.' 



Number. 



Per cent. 



Under $4, . 

Under $5, . 

Under $6, . 

Under $7, . 

Under $8, . 
$8 and over. 

Total, . 



110 


36.6 


240 


79.8 


280 


93.0 


298 


99.0 


300 


99.7 


1 


.3 



301 



100.0 



Seventy-nine per cent, of those under eighteen get less then $5, 93 
per cent, get less than $6. This does not leave a large margin for 
part-time schooling. The statement is made in the report' that "no 
one at all conversant with the facts believes that any proportion of 
the women workers do not need every cent they earn." Only " 1.2 
per cent, of the candy workers gave none of their wages to the home " * 
(97.3 per cent, live at home^), "78.5 per cent, gave all they earned; " 

1 For a further discussion of need and practicability of training for tbis group see Appendix G. 
« Minimum Wage Report, p. 51. > Ibid., p. 80. * Ibii., p. 79. « Ihid., p. 78. 



117 



22.1 per cent, had received charitable assistance, as compared to 12.7 
per cent, in department stores. It seems, therefore, almost impossible 
to expect these girls to give up any portion of their wages for part- 
time schooling. 

The following table seems to show that the more prosperous and 
older workers would not afford a wage reduction, whereas more than 
half of the minors would do so. This may be taken as an indicatioii 
of the proportion finally able to afford some reduction, for nearly all 
the workers interviewed were interested in one form or another for 
further training. The proposition to give some Saturday afternoon 
classes was met with almost universal favor. 

Attitude toward wage reduction. 





Group at 

WOBK 
ONE TEAR. 


Group at 

WORK 
SIX TEARS. 




Yes. 


No. 


Yes. 


No. 


Number of young workers 

Number of parents of workers, 


12 
13 


10 
9 


8 

71 

V 


28 
101 



Attitude toward Saturday afternoon classes. 




Opposed. 



One-year group, 
Six-year group, 



Part-time schooling for candy workers would be a very much needed 
help. As a group they are inefficient, and need some outside stimulus 
and training to pull them above the line at which they earn a bare 
existence. They cannot, however, as a gToup, afford any considerable 
reduction in wage, and would much prefer to give up their free Satur- 
day afternoons. 

Machine Industry. 
Because of the high degree of skill required, together with the ability 
to do independent thinking, employers of machine shop help are more 
decidedly in favor of part-time schooling than any other group. Six- 
teen will co-operate with any form of part-time school, while two 
definitely refuse to do so and three are doubtful. Practical work in 
the industry has shown that manufacturers who were opposed to the 
plan a few years ago are now its most enthusiastic advocates." 



1 No information for 19 cases. 



2 See pp. 119-123, letters from manufacturers. 



118 

The first part-time schools in the United States were developed in 
connection with this industry. Wherever they have been established 
through the co-operation of a few manufacturers, they have gradually 
grown to include most of the important manufacturers and many of 
the small ones. In Fitchburg and Cincinnati the plan is a proved 
success for the machine shops. Furthermore, manufacturers in other 
communities, realizing the value of the training, are joining in the 
movement. Quiney and Beverly have had schools for some time; Fall 
River and Newton have started schools, and other cities outside of the 
State propose to do so. 

The mechanical difficulty of arranging the shifts or workers is 
greater in this trade than in any other studied, but since it has been 
done in Fitchburg, Cincinnati, Beverly, Quiney, Worcester and New- 
ton, it can be done in other places, and the resulting increase in intelli- 
gence and efficiency Avill more than compensate for the trouble. 

No difficulty need be anticipated from the ycung workers themselves. 
The higher the type of industry the more prosperous the family from 
which the young worker comes, and if a reduction in wage propor- 
tionate to the amount of time taken for training should be necessary, 
the group would probably be able to afford it; but it is probable that 
it will not be necessary. Only one of the sixteen manufacturers who 
are willing to co-operate mentioned a reduction as a condition neces- 
sary for the co-operation. 

From the point of view of expense to the State there is nothing 
alarming. Very little equipment is necessary for teaching related 
mechanics, mathematics and mechanical drawing. A few of the funda- 
mental machines for demonstration and illustration are, of course, 
necessary, but anything beyond that can come only as means permit. 
It is desirable, but not absolutely necessary, that there should be enough 
to go far towards teaching the trade, but the absolutely necessary 
equipment would involve a prohibitory expense. 

Considering that manufacturers so generally favor the school, that 
young people are so much in need of training and are so well able to 
afford it, and that the necessary equipment is of moderate cost, part- 
time schooling for machine shops is certainly practicable.^ The fact 
that so much has been done already along this line, and that the work 
is developing rapidly, is the best answer to any question which may be 
raised regarding practicability for the machine industry. 

» See pp. 65 and 117. 



119 



VIII. Opinions of Employers as to the Need and Practicability 
OF Part-time Schooling, Vocational or Otherwise. 

The following are some of the replies received from employers who 
were asked to express an opinion as to the practicability of pai-t-time 
schooling, and whether or not they would be willing to co-operate in 
the establishment of some scheme. 

Regarding the machine business, one manufacturer writes : — 

From our point of view, so far as our business is concerned we do not 
believe in the half-time schooling, vocational or otherwise. We believe 
that a boy or girl should be compelled to attend school, wherever possible, 
until at least a common school education has been obtained, and then such 
boy or girl should acquire some trade or profession, serving an apprentice- 
ship of the time necessary to acquire such a trade. 

It is extremely difficult to obtain the proper kind of labor to-day in this 
section. We are able to obtain plenty of unskilled labor, which is usually 
uneducated, and in most cases unfamiliar with the English language. 
The kind of labor we are looking for is intelligent, high-grade, first-class 
labor, and it is difficult to procure. If we employ help under seventeen,, 
we would not be disposed to break up their working time by sending them 
to school one day a week. This interferes with business, and %e believe 
the best thing to do is to give a boy and a girl a common school educa- 
tion and then have them serve an apprenticeship, or go into shop work,, 
where good wages may be obtained. 

We have a great inany employees here earning from $18 to $25 a week 
who never served an apprenticeship and never saw a machine shop until 
they came into our own. 

This firm employs none under seventeen years of age. 

One large employer of labor, whose plant is operated upon a system 
which has cost thousands of dollars to perfect, the operations of which 
are based on a fixed payment for a unit of separate operations, either 
one hundred or one thousand, regardless of the machine used, writes 
as follows (this employer has not any regular system of apprentices) : 
" It would interfere materially with us if we were to give employees 
under seventeen years of age any time off for part-time school, that 
is to say, so far as we employ such employees." (Out of 2,400 men 
only about 25 or 30 boys are under seventeen.) " The trouble would 
be that we should lose the product of so much of our plant as their 
employment would represent." This employer suggests that the boys 
spend Saturday afternoons in the furtherance of their education, as 
formerly the boys were obliged to work on Saturday afternoon. 

Another employer is quite enthusiastic. He says : — 

There certainly is a great need for vocational education here in New 
England. Beginning with the automobile boom the east has been drawn 
on constantly for our best men, and we are doing practically nothing to 
replace them. Besides this, the middle west has made great strides in this 



120 

line of education, and will in a very few years have the best-trained men 
in the country in their shops. New England cannot afford to stand still. 
It has been our t»oast, and one founded on facts, that our products were 
superior, because of our skilled workmen. We are therefore not only in 
danger of a scarcity of skilled mechanics, but of losing our hard-earned 
reputation, as we will if we fail to produce high-grade machinery through 
inefficient workmen. A few schools in the east have adopted this plan with 
success, notable at Fitchburg, but when we see the strides Cincinnati alone 
is making in this direction it makes us feel like crying a warning to our 
educators and legislators that there is a great need for activity in this 
direction here in Massachusetts. There is also a great need for a good 
apprenticeship system, but unfortunately it is growing very difficult to 
get good boys to go into it. The part-time system is intensely practicable 
for many reasons. It is attractive, first, because it allows the boy to go 
on with his mates in the school life; and second, because it gives him 
enough money to pay his board during the time he is not only getting an 
education but also learning a trade. The chief success of this plan, it 
seems to me, is that it attracts a class of boys to a trade that has in the 
past two decades been losing attractiveness to this class. 

Another employer says : — 

We believe there is need for part-time schooling for working children 
in this industry. In our city, so far as we know, there are no means to 
furnish vocation training between the ages of fourteen and seventeen 
except where the party works continuously in shops, and may, if he 
chooses, attend evening school. We believe there is need for an appren- 
ticeship system, and in this line of business should consider that a limited 
number of apprentices could be served in a way that would be practicable 
and advantageous to employer and employee. If the public schools or 
independent school could furnish the part-time schooling we believe voca- 
tional and industrial work could be carried on jointly between the school 
and factory. Any method which would tend to guide the undeveloped 
talent of children between fourteen and seventeen years of age into a 
vocation that would be desirable is to be heartily recommended, and we 
believe that the boys and girls of that age are looking for just such 
opportunities; and, again, it would tend to make good citizens of them, 
because their lives will be more useful, and by having the proper training 
they will be happy in a congenial work. We heartily endorse the move- 
ment. 

Still another says : — 

In answer to the question whether we would be willing to give our 
employees under seventeen years of age one day a week to attend a part- 
time school, would say that in general we would answer this question in 
the affirmative, provided the conditions under which they would be in- 
structed are satisfactory. We believe that to make a part-time school 
effective there should be a special supervisor of the boys in a part-time 
school whose duty it should be to confer with the employers, and keep the 
boys up to their engagements with their employers and with the school 
authorities. 



121 

An employer in a city where a part-time system is already estab- 
lished wrote the following letter in answer to an inquiry outside the 
State, and sent a copy to take the place of a direct answer : — 

We have 18 of these boys in our employ. Have graduated 6, — 2 in 
1911 and 4 this year. We have them in our machine room, learning the 
sawsmith trade, in our drafting room, and 2 of them in the office. All 
of them are doing nicely. It is a great pleasure for us to say a word 
for the best plan of education that has ever come to our notice for a boy 
of limited means, whose main object is to fit himself to earn a living at 
the earliest possible date. They are learning a trade and getting an educa- 
tion at the same time. Judging from their efficiency in the trade we feel 
they have learned as much of the trade by alternating in the shop and the 
school as the old plan of apprenticeship did by being all of the time in the 
shop. 

It seems to be the impression in the high school that on the subject 
they have studied they will have obtained greater proficiency than the 
boy who goes to school all of his time. To the casual observer this would 
seem impossible, but educators complain that the average scholar going to 
school all the time does not seem to take more interest in his studies than 
will simply allow him to pass his examination. They frequently hear, 
"What is the use of this study, and what's the use of that?" Therein lies 
the secret. The boy who is going to school studying mechanics has to go 
to the shop and apply this knowledge in the actual work, and readily sees 
what the study is for. He also finds that unless he has actually mastered 
the subject he cannot use it in his work. The result is he is interested 
in a greater degree than it is possible for him to be by going to school 
all the time, and not knowing the practical application of the subject 
he is studying. 

We find, also, that the average apprentice who is all of the time in the 
shop feels if he stays in the shop three years without any particular 
effort on his part he will be a machinist. The boy going to school seems 
to realize it is up to him whether he is a good mechanic or simply has 
served his time. . . . 

In this way (part-time) you will see they are studying school in the 
shop, and shop in the school, and there is no break in their education at 
either point. The more a man knows of the why he does a thing the more 
interested he becomes, and also the more efficient. 

' Some of the educators with whom we have talked have brought up the 
proposition that there are a good many industries for which there is no 
text-book. That is, what they are studying in school does not fit with the 
degree of exactness. That is the case with machine trade. This is quite 
true in some instances. This would, however, seem to be an opportunity 
for the educators, or those who have this matter in charge, to study the 
subject, and supply education matter for the public schools that ivill fit 
each case. 

This course will fit agriculture, and there is no reason why it will not 
fit office work. The merchants on the street would have better clerks if 
they took some of these boys and allowed them to get an education at 
the time they were learning the business of selling goods. The druggist 
wants a drug clerk. Seems to me the public at large wovild be safer in 



122 

the hands of a man who had learned the business under the co-operative 
course than the man who had to dig it out from the entirely practical 
point of view. 

It means a lot of hard work for some one to have the proper studies 
in school to fit in with the occupation the young man seeks to learn, but 
it seems to us worthy of the struggle, to the end that the taxpayers of this 
country and the boys who are going to school shall have something that 
they can use in their business of making a living, and use it immediately 
upon leaving school, without the necessity of spending another two or 
three years to learn the practical side. 

The boys whom we have in the shop will have an education at the end 
of four years, and have a trade, and be earning as much as they would if 
they had served their three years shop work only. They will have a 
foundation on which to go farther than it would be possible for the boy 
who had to start in with common school education and sometimes less. 

There are a great many schemes of industrial education; all of them 
are good; they all help; but as stated earlier in this letter we believe this 
is the best of them all. The boy gets the benefit of actual contact with 
the students and faculty of our public school system, which to our mind 
is a decided advantage over a private tutor. He learns to mingle with 
his fellows, and sees life as it is in the school, when he goes to work in a 
commercial establishment where .the actual activities of life are being 
performed in a truly commercial way. The tools must be kept up-to-date. 
The foreman must give the boy enough individual attention to see that he 
knows what he is going to build, and to see that he does it in a most 
efficient manner. It is the same thing with him as any other boy or man 
that is hired in a commercial establishment. He must earn his way, as it 
is evident the business could not be founded on philanthropy. He, too, 
is surrounded by men who are masters of the art, and learns from them 
by observation and personal contact. 

In both instances he is up against the real thing. When he finishes 
school he knows what he is going to do, and knows what he can do. When 
the average boy who goes to the high school finishes his course and applies 
for a position he is asked what he can do, and his reply will probably 
be, "I don't know; " which you will find a fairly truthful one. 

This course gives the manufacturers a thinking mechanic. It gives the 
laboring men's boys a chance to become a thinking mechanic; gives them 
a chance with the education they obtain to become manufacturers, if they 
have the energy and determination to carry them so far. It gives a man 
the education that allows him to think clearly for himself, and he does 
not have as many troubles that he cannot overcome without assistance, aa 
if the reverse were the case. Places him in a position to compete with 
any one. 

Manufacturers will tell you that they are constantly looking for men 
who are capable of taking thinking parts in the overseeing and manage- 
ment of their business, without always finding what they are looking for. 
A system of education such as this cannot help but relieve this situation. 

In conversation with men who have been to an institute of technology, 
they have said, " Wish I had had this course, and I would have gotten more 
out of my Tech." 



123 

We feel very certain that the very great majority of taxpayers will get 
more for their money in this way than has been the case under the purely 
academic condition that has prevailed. 

In conversation with our superintendent of schools he tells us that 
while he does not know positively, he feels very certain that 100 of the 800 
odd pupils which will start in our high school next year never would have 
gone farther than the ninth grade, or first year in high school, had it not 
been for this course. 

The fact that the boy is able to earn a certain amount of money, which 
helps his parents (and very often they need this help as soon as he has 
an earning capacity), makes it possible for them to allow him to spend 
the extra three or four years necessary to graduate, having in mind when 
he graduates that he Avill be as well equipped for life as if he had 
stopped going to school and spent his whole time learning the trade. 

The thing necessary to our mind to successfully start a course in con- 
nection with the public schools is to get the school board and faculty 
working with you. Assure yourself of the hearty co-operation of the 
manufacturers. Have them understand that they cannot exploit the boy; 
they must agree to teach him a definite something, and then push him 
forward as rapidly as his capacity for the work will admit. 

Last, and of just as much importance, it is necessary to get a practical 
man as instructor of the course. Mr. Hunter, whom we have herp, learned 
the machinist trade, graduated from school of technology, worked in draft- 
ing room for three or four years, and keeps in touch with all new ideas 
in the mechanical world, visits the shops and keeps himself right up to 
the minute. This enables him to answer any questions the boys ask him 
about their work or their studies as readily, and with as much intelligence, 
as would a proficient Latin teacher with question asked about that sub- 
ject. 

Finally we think it the best thing that ever happened. 



124 



Appendix F. 



SUGGESTED PROGRAMS FOR PART-TIME EDUCATION. 

In making recommendations for programs of vocational training 
towards different industries, the present industrial situation as regards 
specialization of labor is accepted as one which is inevitable, and as 
making for the greatest good to the greatest number. The possibility 
of offering training in schools so extended as to make it possible for 
one worker to learn all the operations of an industry has not been 
considered practicable nor desirable. The programs offered aim to 
establish a substitute for the old apprenticeship system in the form of 
a training which will enable the worker not only to learn the work so 
that he may earn a living, but also to make him a more intelligent 
worker because of his knowledge of the industry as a whole. These 
programs, therefore, do not presuppose changes in the prevailing sys- 
tem of manufacturing, but aim to introduce a plan of co-operation 
between shop and school which will result in an adequate system of 
training for young workers. Such a plan should insure to the human 
element in manufacturing as much consideration and thought as are 
devoted to methods of producing goods in the best factories and shops.^ 

Part-time courses should provide employed young people between 
fourteen and seventeen years of age with a training which is twofold 
in its purpose : — 

(a) It should increase their general intelligence and lead them to 
understand better their social and civic duties. This is here designated 
as training for citizenship, or liberal education. 

(6) It should increase their industrial intelligence^ and skiU so that 
they will be able to do their work more intelligentl}- and skillfully, 
understand its relation to that of other tasks and to the business as a 
whole, and acquire such an understanding of the organization of in- 
dustry and such an adaptability in the industry that promotion to the 
best positions which they are capable of filling will be possible. Such 
training is called here industrial or vocational education. 

1 For a discussion of the practicability of these programs, see Appendix E, pp. 99-123. 

2 Report of the Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, 1906: "This lack is not 
chiefly a want of manual dexterity, though such a want is common, but a want of what may be 
called industrial intelligence. By this is meant mental power to see beyond the task which occupies 
the hands for the moment to the operations which have preceded and to those which will follow 
it, — power to take in the whole process, knowledge of materials, ideas of cost, ideas of organiza- 
tion, business sense, and a conscience which recognizes obligations." 



125 

Such a liberal and vocational education, when measured in terms of 
power, that is, ability to understand and apply what has been taught, 
will be for many more than the equivalent of what these young people 
would receive were they to finish the regular grammar school course. 

Programs and courses of study to furnish such an education as this, 
and to meet the needs of individuals working under different conditions 
in various occupations, must provide the following : — 

(1) Training for a better understanding of specialized machines and 
for the development of manipulative skill as supplemental to the work 
of the factory, such training to furnish a basis for the beginning of 
a broader training on other machines and the development of a wider 
industrial experience and intelligence. 

(2) Training in the commercial, office and selling side of the business 
for those in the manufacturing departments who show ability along 
such lines. 

(3) Training for workers in the so-called unskilled industries, to 
increase their interest and industrial intelligence, and to develop capac- 
ity for advancement where opportunity for promotion exists, and, 
where it does not, to fit for more skilled and remunerative employment 
in other industries. ^ 

(4) Training for workers in juvenile occupations which will enable 
them to gain favorable entrance to occupations suitable to adults. 

(5) Training for those who are not naturally capable, bright and 
ambitious, to reduce, so far as possible, the number of unskilled, and 
to make those who must probably always be specialized operatives the 
best specialists possible and the best citizens. 

(6) Training for both boys and girls who have completed the gram- 
mar school, as well as for those who leave the lower grades at fourteen, 
to give a knowledge of the industi'y, and to show the application of 
what they have been taught in the elementary schools. 

(7) Training in citizenship for all; and in the household arts for 
all girls, especially for those who are temporarily employed at a low 
wage in unskilled occupations. 

(8) Instruction of the type offered in the regular academic high 
school for those who may wish to go to college. 

(9) Training which will make the puj^il wish to continue in night 
courses after the age of seventeen, so that the influence of the school 
may be exerted for a longer period than at present. 

(10) Training which will conserve the strength of the young worker 
and relieve monotonous employment by games, gymnastics, baths, en- 
tertainment, recreation and instruction in the proper care of the body. 

Schools with courses providing for the above would meet the dif- 
ferent existing conditions and needs in all of the industries studied. 
These industries and occupations are believed to be fairly typical, and, 
in a broad way, the same principles would probably be found appli- 
cable to the other industries not treated in this report. It is apparent 



126 

that no one program or course of study will fit all conditions; these 
must be varied to meet the needs of each community. Even in the 
same city, young people worldng in the same trade will get very 
much broader training and find larger opportunities in some shops 
than they will in others, and the function of the school must be to 
equalize, so far as practicable, such opportunities by supplementing 
the work of the shop. 

Except in the largest cities, one institution should be organized in 
each city or large town and made the center for all the varying re- 
quirements which exist in the community. Such an institution should 
have all-day courses for both boys and girls who wish to continue their 
education beyond the compulsory school period. These courses should 
be so organized that at the end of a period of three or four years 
pujDils can enter a trade with advanced standing as apprentices, and 
at any time during such a period, especially at the end of any one 
year, the school should be prepared to place them, through co-opera- 
tion with employers, in the positions which they are best fitted to fill. 
After they have secured positions, the school should continue its hold 
upon them through part-time courses until they are at least seventeen 
years of age, and, from this time on, through evening school instruc- 
tion. All who cannot attend a full-time day course should receive 
their school instruction on a part-time basis, pupils attending at such 
times and in such numbers as will be satisfactory to the school authori- 
ties and to the employer. This will mean that the institution must be 
operated twelve months in the year, six days in the week and eight 
hours a day, with evening sessions of from two to three hours. 

This institution should be organized with all-day, part-time and 
evening courses in as many different departments as there are dis- 
tinctly different trades employing enough people to warrant the estab- 
lishment of such courses. The school should prepare boys and girls 
in all-day courses for entrance to the skilled occupations; through part- 
time courses, it should prepare those in the comparatively unskilled 
industries in which there is little future, and those employed in juvenile 
occupations, for entrance to a skilled or adult employment. 

Efficiency of Instruction. 
Teachers should not be allowed to teach such an amount of time in 
both day and evening schools as to impair the efficiency of their teach- 
ing. While they should be in the service of the school for the full 
period of twelve months, they should be allowed sufficient time and 
opportunity to keep in touch with industrial needs and conditions. 
This should be considered as important a part of the work as the 
class-room instruction, and no teacher should be employed or con- 
tinued in employment who does not conform to this requirement. The 
longer the teacher remains out of industry as a workman, the more 
necessary will such study become. Teachers of related academic sub- 



127 

jects should be required to gain a working knowledge of the trade or 
trades from which their students come, and to keep abreast of the 
times, as in the case of shop instructors.^ 

CO-OPERATIOK OF EMPLOYERS. 

A part-time vocational school should always have an advisory com- 
mittee composed of practical men and women, both employers and 
employees, who will aid by advice as to the kind of instruction needed, 
and especially in securing the co-operation of the industrial and busi- 
ness portion of the community. 

Amount of time given to school attendance should be not less than 
eight hours per week. Where young people are employed in the most 
highly skilled industries, at least the equivalent of one working day 
should be taken for part-time instruction in the related technical and 
theoretical subjects. Where not more than this amount of time is 
taken, little besides a general understanding of machines which they 
are not yet operating in factory or shop can be given, and when it is 
necessary to give preparation for a new machine in the school, more 
time wiU be required. A week or more might then be devoted wholly 
to the school, to be followed by a similar period later. If half time 
is devoted to the school, a sufficient amount of practical instruction 
can be given to make for a thorough understanding of the trade. 
Where young people are engaged in juvenile employments, and prep- 
aration for another occupation is to be given, at least one half of their 
time could profitably be devoted to school instruction. In this case it 
might be considered that they are regularly attending school, and 
working to earn enough money to enable them to do it, with the idea 
that the dominant interest will be in the school. 

Flexible Programs to meet Individual Needs. 
The program and courses of study in such a school cannot be made 
and remain fixed indefinitely, as is now the practice in most educa- 
tional institutions. Only a general plan of what is to be accomplished 
can be made for the year, and the program must be constantly shifted 
to meet the varying requirements from week to week, sometimes even 
from day to day. In other words, the program should be made to fit 
the needs of the students, instead of the students being made to eon- 
form to the program and curriculum. Some one in the school must 
be responsible for an exact knowledge of the requirements of every 
student, see that they receive just the instruction which is needed, 
watch their progress in the industry and see if they are profiting by 
the training of the school. This will be one of the most important, 
in fact, an indispensable feature of the school. It will mean a con- 
stant " measuring up " of the efficiency of its work. 

1 For a discussion of teachers, see p. 129. 



128 



Classes of those with Similar Needs and Experience. 
Except in the case of instruction in such general subjects as civics, 
household arts, hygiene and gymnastics, those who come from different 
industries cannot be grouped together in the school. It will be neces- 
sary to organize a class of those employed in the same industry suffi- 
ciently small so that the teaching can be practically individual, using 
the every-day industrial experience as the basis of instruction. To do 
this, a class unit of fifteen is recommended, and the number must not 
exceed twenty. The Avorkers who desire general academic training 
would make so small a group as to be almost infinitesimal, and it will 
be quite possible to deal with these excejotional cases in an institution 
such as is suggested above, or arrangements could be made whereby 
this work might be done by the regular elementary or high schools. 

Equipment. 

For classes of young people employed in most mechanical industries, 
considerable machine equipment will be an absolute necessity. In some 
eases the machines and industrial plant of the factory can be utilized 
for purposes of instruction during dull seasons, and at other times, 
by a co-operative arrangement between the factory and the school 
which will allow the worker to be shifted from one department to 
another. It will probably be found that few if any classes can be 
organized without some mechanical equipment in the school to be used 
for purposes of demonstration. Only in dull seasons will the young 
people be able to get any very great variety of instruction on machines 
in manufacturing plants, so that the school must be equipped with the 
fundamental machines of the different industries. While the school 
should be equipped with up-to-date machinery, the j^roblem of keeping 
it up-to-date is not at all analogous to that of keeping up the equip- 
ment in a manufacturing plant. The object of the school equipment 
is instruction, not speed and production, and the machines will not 
be subjected to the strain and wear of the commercial shop. While 
many special machines have been developed, the fundamental principles 
of the most expensive equijoments have changed little, if any, in the 
last thirty years. 

Probable Cost. 

An institution which would deal effectively with this problem could 
not be conducted at a per capita cost of less than $100 to $150 for 
students who take the full course every day; for half-time instruction, 
the per capita cost would be from $50 to $75 ; on the basis of one day 
per week, the per capita cost would be $20 to $30 per year, or, fig- 
uring on the latter basis, it would cost the State and the local authori- 
ties not less than $800,000 per year for instruction. If this work 
should be conducted under chapter 471, Acts of 1911, the State's share 



129 

of the expense would be not less than $400,000 for the education of 
40,000 children. To this should be added from $35,000 to $50,000 
more for supervision, administration, further study and the training 
of teachers, thus placing upon the State a financial burden of at least 
$450,000 per year. 

Teachers. 

The most difficult, and at the same time the most important, problem 
that any comprehensive and practical plau of part-time schooling has 
to solve is that of an adequate supply of competent teachers. Always 
and everywhere the chief factor in education in this new, uncharted 
field, the teacher must play a role of quite unusual importance. In- 
deed, the character and success of the part-time school wUl depend 
almost wholly upon the teachers who can be secured to inaugurate it 
and to carry it on. No one to-day is competent to present even 
progTams of part-time school work that are more than general, sug- 
gestive and tentative; to an unusual extent the teacher must be capable 
of working out his own programs. 

The qualifications of teachers competent to undertake this work are 
as unusual as the work is novel and difficult. In addition to native 
intelligence, cultivated by a good general academic educatioAi, and a 
strong and pleasing personality, — qualifications demanded of all 
teachers, — part-time school teachers must be trained and experienced 
in the arts, the trades and occupations, in which they are to help their 
pupils to become more efficient. Those who are to give mainly tech- 
nical instruction, as distinguished from correlative and practical 
aeadettiic instruction, must have a broad knowledge of the art or trade 
in which they give instruction, must be always familiar with the latest 
and best processes and practices of that art or trade, and must them- 
selves be skilled workmen; in short, they must be capable of command- 
ing the industrial respect of the best regular workmen, of foremen and 
superintendents. It is especially important that these teachers com- 
mand the industrial respect of foremen and superintendents; for the 
success of the part-time school will depend upon the intelligent and 
intimate co-operation of instructors and employers. ' And finally, all 
instructors in part-time schools must be superior as teachers, — for 
they have to deal largely with boys and girls whom their regular 
teachers, — even the best of them, — have failed fully to reach. A 
change from the academic matter and method of the regnilar school 
to a more concrete and practical matter and method, better adapted 
to the type of pupil in question, will help the part-time school teacher; 
but his complete success will depend upon teaching skill and insight 
of a high order. 

Where and how can an adequate supply of competent teachers be 
secured 1 Few can be found at the present time, — all too few to meet 
the demand; and to meet the enormously increased demand that any 



130 

general plan of part-time schooling would create there is at present 
no source of adequate supply. But the outlook is by no means hope- 
less; the State must undertake the training of such teachers just as 
the State has for years trained teachers for the regular schools. If 
the State is to require part-time schools, the State must make it possi- 
ble for the community to meet that requirement; if the State is merely 
to encourage the establishment of such schools, the State can do this 
in no way more effectively than through a supply of well-trained 
teachers who can demonstrate the practicability and efficiency of part- 
time schooling. 

How and where shall teachers for part-time schools be trained? 
Where shall candidates for training be found who possess the necessary 
preliminary qualifications'? To secure and train teachers competent 
to handle the practical academic work of part-time schools need not 
be a difficult matter. Teachers of successful experience, either in gram- 
mar or high schools, who have the rig'ht point of view, who are adapt- 
able, who can appreciate and meet conditions as they are, need only 
to acquire sufficient insight into the processes, the purposes and the 
point of view of trade and industry to enable them to make their 
instruction in academic subjects practical and effective. Such insight 
they might get through brief i^eriods of service in the trades and in- 
dustries, — summer vacations spent in this way would suffice, — and 
through constant association and exchange of ideas with their col- 
leagues, the teachers of technical subjects. Work together in the school 
shops would be of mutual advantage to the academic and the technical 
teachers. 

The problem of securing suitable candidates and training them suc- 
cessfully to be teachers of technical subjects is a much more difficult 
one. The indispensable qualification that these teachers be workmen 
of such general intelligence and skill that they will command the re- 
spect of foremen and superintendents in the industries, at once limits 
the list of possible eligibles to workmen of several years' experience, 
— not less than five, pi'obably eight or ten as a rule, — who are com- 
manding good wages, $1,000 or more per year. In most cases such 
workmen will have family obligations which will make it quite impossi- 
ble, were they so disposed, to sacrifice their present earnings for a 
single year even, with the hope of fitting themselves for somewhat 
better paid service thereafter. 

The problem of training such candidates in the art of teaching when 
they are secured is a new and obviously not an easy one. The char- 
acter of the candidates themselves, the character of the type of pupils 
whom they are to learn to instruct, the subject-matter, the materials 
and processes which must be used in part-time technical instruction, 
and the whole purpose and methods of this instruction are so radically 
different from those that obtain in the normal schools, in which the 
State prepares teachei-s for the regular schools, that it is at once 



131 

apparent that here is a problem quite outside the field of any existent 
normal school. A special normal school might be established for this 
purpose, but its immediate feasibility is open to question. In the first 
place, not enough is known at the present time about the details of train- 
ing that will prove most efficient to enable any one wisely to design a 
normal school plant of this type; hence, experimentation would un- 
doubtedly prove very expensive. Moreover, whatever plant might be 
found eventually adequate, it is reasonably sure that both the first cost 
of such a plant and the expense of operating it would be very large, 
much larger in proportion to the number of teachers trained than that 
of any of the existent normal schools. Finally, it is extremely doubtful 
whether the type of training probably necessary can be effectively given 
in any institution that would resemble a normal school. 

A quite different plan of training teachers of technical subjects com- 
mends itself in many ways. It is this. Let the State enter into 
arrangements with selected existing vocational schools, — full-time day 
schools, — and with others that may be established, to take in training 
suitable candidates for technical teachers. The number that any one 
school could take would necessarily be quite limited; each selected 
school should specialize in the training of teachers for certain tyjDes 
of work, as printing, ]3attern maldng, electrical work, machine-tool 
work, — those types in which the particular school, through its in- 
structors and equipment, was best qualified to give instruction to 
would-be teachers. The entire arrangement, all the essential condi- 
tions of training, must, of course, be subject to the control and super- 
vision of the State through the executive officers of the State Board 
of Education. As compensation for the service rendered, the State 
should pay to the school training these teachers a fi^xed amount for 
every unit of service, that is, for every prospective teacher in training 
for one year. 

One of the important conditions of the training proposed should be 
that the school carrying on this training pay its apprentice teachers 
for their service as assistants while in training a salary aiDproximately 
equal to the amount received from the State.. This the school can well 
afford to do, provided, of course, that its work be properly organized. 
The prospective teachers of technical work must have, as an indis- 
pensable part of any course of training that is to prove effective, a 
large amount of practice teaching under the intimate guidance and 
suiDervision of skilled teachers. With a suitable organization, the 
service that a very limited number of practice teachers could render 
— and no school should undertake to train more than two or three in 
any one department — would be sufficient to enable the school to dis- 
pense with assistants that it would otherwise be comiDclled to employ. 
The saving effected in this way should be applied to the salaries of 
head teachers to enable the school to secure and to retain the sen-ices 
of the very best, — those comj^etent not only to teach but to train 



132 

others to teach. Thus, while this plan would hold out to the school 
selected for training teachers little or no hope of a net reduction in 
operating expense, it would promise for the school superior teachers 
and a fully adequate number of assistants at least as competent as 
such schools are now able to obtain. The resultant improvement in 
the service that the school could render its pupils would undoubtedly 
be inducement suflBcient to enable the State to make the arrangements 
proposed with any schools that might be selected to render this service. 

In addition to furnishing the best training that can at present be 
devised, this plan will go far to make it possible to secure for training 
the type of experienced workmen required. The pay that is proposed 
for teachers in training and rendering the service of assistants, to- 
gether with some additional comi^ensation that such training teachers 
might well earn for service in evening vocational schools, would ap- 
proximately make good the sacrifice of wages. 

By this plan the best candidates should be trained in one year to 
begin service as teachers; less promising candidates might require as 
much as two years of training. It would not be desirable and probably 
not necessary to undertake the training of candidates who could not 
become fairly competent teachers within two years. 

Finally, a very important advantage of the plan proposed — which, 
as every plan must be, is confessedly experimental — is its inexpen- 
siveness and its susceptibility to adaptation to the growing and fluc- 
tuating demand for teachers of the type under discussion. The State 
is called upon to make no initial investment in plant or organization; 
so there can be absolutely no financial loss should the plan for any 
reason be abandoned. At all times the State would pay only for 
service rendered, and that at a much lower rate than such service could 
be secured — were this plan feasible — in an independent institution 
that the State might establish for this purpose. 

Training away from One Occupation into Another. 
Schools must face the fact that young people, because they can be 
hired at low wages, will be employed in large numbers to do what is 
termed boys' and girls' work. After the period of this juvenile em- 
ployment has passed, they reach the age of seventeen or eighteen and 
find that they are not able to earn much, if any, more than when they 
started their industrial career. Most of them have made little or no 
progress in fitting themselves for an adult's work. Where this juvenile 
employment is in a city of varied industrial opportunities the problem 
is comparatively simple, because the young person, while attending a 
part-time school, can be fitted to enter an occupation which employs, 
in the main, adults. Such work should be conducted on a half-time 
basis, preferably in -an alternating weekly plan. In this case the 
juvenile employment should be made to serve as a means of furnish- 
ing the necessary money to allow them to continue their education, and 



133 

to furnish an incidental experience in responsibility with practical 
affairs while they are being fitted for favorable entrance to a trade 
or occupation at seventeen or eighteen years of age or older. 

The experience gained by those emiDloyed in the messenger service 
and similar occupations can be used as a basis for training which will 
lead to a career on the shipping and transportation side of business. 
Those who are to be fitted for entrance to mechanical occupations, such 
as printing, machine work, boot and shoe manufacturing, carpentry, 
cabinet making, brick laying, steam fitting, etc., would need more than 
theoretical instruction; an elementary experience at least ought to be 
given on the practical side of the work which they plan to enter. This 
will necessitate a certain amount of mechanical equipment in the school. 
The schools should discover the fitness of the different pupils for the 
various occupations, and determine what lines of work are the least 
overcrowded and offer the greatest opportunities. 

Suggestions for a City op only One Industry. — Program for the 
Textile Business. 
The most difficult problem is found in connection with the juvenile 
work in the textile business. The difficulty in dealing witli it is two- 
fold, (a) As it is at present organized, a small number of men and 
no women are required for the positions which correspond with those 
of the superintendent, foremen and their assistants in other industries, 
thus reducing the opportunities for promotion to positions of leader- 
ship. (&) As these positions are usually the only ones requiring any 
great amount of training or skill in the community, and because the 
textile business is usually the dominant one, there are only a few oppor- 
tunities for skilled work in other employments. Such a problem is 
presented in a city like Fall River, where the textile business is the 
only large industry in the city and requires only a small amount of skill 
on the part of the majority of the individual operatives. 

Organization and Amount of Time. 
For this industry two kinds of part-time classes might be organized: 
(a) classes made up of those who can devote not more than five to 
eight hours a week to the school, such classes to deal with the ma- 
jority of young workers found in the business; (b) classes made up 
of those who show special ability, and who can give more time to a 
school for special training, such pupils to devote half their time to 
school and the other half to work. From the standpoint of the school, 
it would make little difference whether these classes altei'nated between 
the factory and the school by months, by weeks, by days or by half 
days. It was found that many mills had " overseers " or foremen who 
had worked under the English half-time plan. These men were in- 
clined to favor a change every half day or every other day, as is the 



134 

ease in England. For example, if they changed every half day there 
would be two sets of young workers, each trained to do the same work, 
one group working in the morning in the mill and attending school in 
the afternoon, while the other group would have been in school in the 
morning and would go to the mill in the afternoon. Those men who 
were not familiar with the English system, when the different plans 
were explained to them for the first time, were inclined to favor the 
alternating weekly plan.^ Such an arrangement is now working suc- 
cessfully in one mill in Fitchburg with a selected group of boys who 
are only a small part of the total number employed. This plan is 
recommended where the mill management does not show a preference. 
As this plan requires doubling the number of young workers to keep 
up production, and reducing their pay by approximately one half, it 
is felt that it will have to be confined to comparatively few of the total 
number employed. The mills are usually so anxious to get young 
help that whenever the school authorities are ready to go to them and 
say, " Here are 30 boys who are anxious to continue their education, 
but they cannot give more than half their time to schooling. Will you 
take them on a half-time basis, 15 one week and 15 the next," the 
management will be willing to do this, as it will increase their working 
force by 15 and will tend to give them more earnest, purposeful young 
people. 

For the great mass of workers in the textile business, half their time 
for three years would not be required to give them a training which 
would enable them to reach their greatest skill as specialized operatives, 
probably five to eight hours per week would be sufficient. Taking this 
amount of time from the factory would require a working force of 
about one-sixth more. 

Subject-matter. 
With a group giving one half of their working time to school train- 
ing, the school should set itself the task of preparing boys for what 
might be termed the maintaining occupations in that industry. Train- 
ing in such lines as carpentry, machine work, mechanical drawing, 
electricity and the maintenance of i^ower service cannot be given in any 
adequate way while the worker is employed in the mill. A general 
understanding of the textile business and a knowledge of what the 
machines are expected to do will be necessary in order that they may 
be able to erect machines, keep them in repair, line up shafting, install 
motors, run wires, conduits, piping, and be generally adaptable in 
plants which have a large amount of steam piping, electrical conduit, 
wiring, shafting, belting, pulleys, etc. If these things are taught, to- 

1 Very few of these men favored any plan which would increase the amount of work which they 
would have to do in looking after their help, and stated that these things could be done provided 
(1) that the law required it, and (2) that they could get a sufficient amount of extra help. See 
discussion of amount of help available under Appendix E, "Practicability," pp. 103-104, 110. 



135 

gether with English, related mathematics, history, civics, etc., these 
boys, even though they are in the textile business in the same capacity 
as those who have had no such training, will have a larger opportunity, 
which is twofold. First, on account of their larger training, after 
successful experience in the business as operatives, they will be in line 
for promotion as second hands, overseers and possibly superintendents, 
if they show ability for such positions; second, if they have not the 
personal qualities which would enable them to fill executive positions 
and control others, this training will at least prepare them to under- 
stand their machines better, and wiU fit them for such positions as mill- 
wrights, repairing machinists, electricians and steam fitters. 

For those who cannot devote more than five to eight hours per week 
to a part-time school, the training should aim to fit for the most highly 
skilled occupations in the mill, so that at the age of seventeen or eight- 
een, boys will have had training and experience in such work as weav- 
ing, loom fixing, mule spinning, etc. These occupations can be learned 
in a comparatively short time, and they pay a wage which would tend 
to stop a great deal of the idleness which exists at the present time. 

Any system of training for the textile industry should aim: (a) to 
establish a substitute for the old apprenticeship system m the mill; 
make the boys feel a responsibility to their employer, and make the 
employer feel an equal responsibility for the future of the boys after 
they get beyond the point where they are no longer contented with 
a boy's work and pay, such as that of bobbin boys, doffers, etc., by 
training them for a department which employs men rather than to 
allow them to become disgusted with all mill work, as is now so often 
the ease; (&) to establish through the school an agency which will look 
after the interests of the boys and girls in the community as a whole, 
know where they are at work, what they are doing, how successful 
they are, and what their future in the business might be with the right 
kind of effort and training. The school should, with the proper co- 
operation with industry, do much to stop the present purposeless shift- 
ing and drifting, and make young people see that their future lies in 
work, not in idleness. 

In a textile center the industrial conditions are such that it is pos- 
sible to give but little training which will open an industrial future 
for girls other than that offered by the mills. A part-time school might 
offer some instructions to make for a general understanding of the 
industry, at least an understanding of the work and system of the 
department in which they are employed, together with the keeping of 
such accounts and records as are required by the overseers of these 
different departments. Any vocational training which will enable them 
to do other work better and with the least effort should be offered. 

Where girls are unsuited to the kind of work which they are doing, 
or when the task becomes physically too exacting, the school should 
give training for another department or for a less exacting task. 



136 

A large part of the time of the girls in the textile industry should 
be devoted to the household arts, dressmaking, mUlinery, personal hy- 
giene and simple home accounts. 

When not more than five to eight hours per week for three years 
can be devoted to the school, the work offered should be along these 
lines rather than along the line of vocational training for the mill. 

The largest purpose of this kind of instruction for girls should be 
to relieve the monotony of their employment, and give a training 
which will make for the betterment of living conditions and the im- 
provement of homes of the second and third generations of our new 
Americans, 

Equipment for Textile Part-time Education. 

To carry out a program such as is outlined above, a few of the typi- 
cal machines will be found necessary. In the cities of Fall River and 
New Bedford, the equipments of the present State textUe schools are 
adequate, and should be made available for this purpose. The two 
other large textile centers, Lowell and Lawrence, are already supplied 
with equipment. In Lowell there is ample equipment in either the 
State textile school or the State-aided vocational school. In Lawrence 
there is quite a complete equipment in the State-aided vocational school. 
In the smaller textile centers it should be possible to have one or two 
discarded machines in the school for the purposes of studying the 
mechanical movement and adjustments, and making drawings of the 
different parts. In these centers, proper co-operation with the mill 
management should enable the instructor to take groups of boys to 
the mill for the study of machines and processes with which they are 
not familiar. The school, whether in the large or small center, should 
give the theoretical instruction, illustrating it by demonstration with 
the apparatus, but the actual experience and practice should be given 
in the mill, which will mean the closest kind of co-operation. 

In centers like Chicopee, Holyoke, Ijowell and Fitehburg, there is 
considerable opportunity for training for the metal-working industry, 
and in the case of Lowell, for the shoe business. In these and similar 
cases the schools should have equipment upon which young people can 
get some elementary practice and the experience which will enable 
them to gain favorable entrance to these occupations. In all cases 
they should have some machine, carpentry and electrical equipment, 
because of the importance of instruction along these lines for what 
has been termed above the maintaining occupations of the textile 
business. 

Suggestions for a Program of Training for the Boot and Shoe 

Business. 
Under the present system of manufacturing shoes there are about 
one hundred and eighty different operations, each performed by a 
specialist. This industry is probably more minutely subdivided and 



137 

specialized than any other in the Commonwealth. The majority of the 
foremen and superintendents in the business learned their trade either 
before or during the transition period, when it was possible to learn 
the whole process of making a shoe. There appear to be a few spe- 
cialized operatives who also have a considerable knowledge of shoe 
manufacturing. These are among the most highly paid and most in- 
telligent men in the business. 

The claim is made by manufacturers that the foremen and superin- 
tendents trained under the old methods are fast dropping out, and the 
system of manufacturing is not developing men to take their places. 
They claim (a) that general vocational training which would make for 
an understanding of the different machines and processes, factory or- 
ganization, costs of material and manufacturing would develop a kind 
of intelligence and give experience which would enable those possessing 
the personality and executive ability to become foremen, superin- 
tendents and salesmen on the road; (6) that all young people who 
intend to have a future in the business should, in the beginning at 
least, have the kind of training mentioned above so that those who can- 
not fill executive positions will develop into the kind of specialized 
operatives so much needed, those who know why they do things, who 
understand the relation of their own operations to those of others, who 
can tell when a thing is wrong, why it is wrong, what needs to be done 
to correct it, and understand that if it is done wrong it is likely to 
spoil work or cause trouble in succeeding operations. 

Organization and Amount of Time for the School. 
Only 5.6 per cent, of all the shoe workers in the State are estimated 
as being under seventeen years of age, so that the problem of getting 
enough young help is not a serious one. A considerable amount of time 
is necessary for a program of training for the shoe business. From 
the standpoint of vocational education the alternating weekly plan could 
be operated with profit to the pupil for a period of at least three years.^ 
This could be followed by instruction for five to eight hours per week 
for those who wish further vocational training for any special line or 
department, such as special phases of manufacturing, purchasing 
and selling.. Such work as the latter should be done with selected 
groups who could probably be spared by the management for a time 
each week, or, if not, so released that this instruction might be given 
during the dull season. Such classes should be open to all over seven- 
teen years of age who have had a sufficient training in the shoe business 
so that they could profit by the work offered. The half-time plan 
should be so modified for the shoe business that during the periods of 
great rush all the time could be devoted to the factory if their services 
were required, while during the dull periods, or when the factory is 
practically closed, all the time could be devoted to the school. 

1 Alternating plan to work as described on p. 133, " Textile Program." 



138 



Programs of Training for the Shoe Business. 

A program of training for the shoe business should be both liberal 
and vocational. About two thirds of the time given to the school might 
well be devoted to practical shop work, with such related technical study 
as drawing, both mechanical and pattern drafting, mathematics, the 
study of factory systems, danger points in the operation of machines, 
methods of marketing goods, problems of labor, labor laws, and all 
questions pertaining to the relation of employer and employee and the 
reasonable obligations of both. The remaining time could be devoted 
to what might be called a more liberal training, to include the related 
work in English, history, geography and civics, — all to be taught in 
such a practical way that it cannot fail to interest and educate. 

The practical work for boys should include elementary experience 
in all of the operations found in the making of the shoe, to be followed 
by specialization on three or four different machines or operations, and 
a pretty thorough knowledge of the work of one department. Such 
instruction and practical experience for three or four years should give 
all boys entering the industry an equal opportunity, and at the end 
of this time those possessing special ability should be given the oppor- 
tunity for further training of a more highly technical nature. A school 
offering such courses might well be located in the city of Boston for 
the benefit of the shoe industry in the State as a whole. Such a tech- 
nical shoe school should benefit at least four different groups of people: 

(1) young people between the ages of fourteen and seventeen employed 
in the shoe business in Boston who could give half time to attendance; 

(2) those in such shoe centers as Brockton, Lynn, Haverhill, Marl- 
borough, etc., who have attended local half-time classes for three or four 
years, who have shown ability and wish to learn about the manufactur- 
ing of other grades of shoes made in different parts of the State, and 
to receive the higher technical instruction in shoemaking as a whole; 

(3) the older workers employed during the day in the shoe business 
of Boston and vicinity who wish to attend evening classes; (4) the 
older workers employed in the shoe business outside of the metropoli- 
tan district wishing a broader training who could attend during dull 
seasons. 

The vocational training required by girls need not be as broad in its 
scope as that suggested above. The girls and women in the industry 
are, on the whole, employed on two lines of work, namely, stitching 
and packing. They learn these operations in about six weeks, and 
beyond giving them the training for this work in a more thorough and 
systematic way, together with simple instruction in department account- 
ing, it is difficult to see what vocational training would be of any 
practical value. The girls and women in the shoe business are paid a 
good wage as compared with those in other lines of work requiring 
similar ability, so from the economic standpoint there would be nothing 



139 

gained- by offering training for another occupation. The school can, 
however, give these girls valuable com-ses in the science and art of 
home making, dressmaking, millinery and personal hygiene. 

Programs of Training for the Machine Business. 

More has been done along the line of working out programs for the 
machine industry than for any other. Prom these experiments we have 
learned that this industry, which is much more complex than the tex- 
tile business, and more varied as to product and methods than the shoe 
business, is well adapted to a plan of training which allows some 
groups to work one week in the shop and the next week in the school. 
In some machine shops the plan of devoting an hour or so each day 
to school work has been tried, but the most common practices are the 
alternating weekly plan, and the plan whereby five hours out of one 
day each week are devoted to school work. In the ease of the half- 
time plan, production is continuous and no machines are idle, whereas 
in the case of the latter plan the places of the workers are not filled 
while they are in school. 

Amount of Time. 

To cover a comprehensive course of training the half-timfe plan op- 
erated for a period of three or four years is preferable, and is recom- 
mended both from the standpoint of the school and the standpoint of 
the industry. 

Program of Work. 

Some thirty years' experience in technical and trade schools in the 
teaching of machine and related technical work have shown that valu- 
able training both in the theory and the practice of this work, can be 
given in a school, and that young men receiving such instruction are 
adaptable and successful in the business. A comprehensive part-time 
plan must provide for instruction in the related technical studies, draw- 
ing, machine design, mechanics, etc. Since few, if any, shops give an 
adequate training and all-round experience on the different machines 
in the shop, the part-time school will have to supplement the practical 
work of the factory by the necessary demonstration and instruction in 
the proper operation of machines and methods of doing work. 

Where proper co-operation between the shop and the school exist, 
it should be so arranged that the boy can be changed from machine to 
machine while he is working in the shop. In this case the shop work 
of the school can be reduced to a minimum, but we have no evidence 
yet to show that such a plan of co-operation can be brought about that 
the practical work of the school can be entirely eliminated. This in- 
vestigation has shown that only a small percentage of the boys now 
working under existing plans of co-operation get the necessary breadth 
of training in the shop.^ 

> See conditions in machine shops, Appendix C, p. 65. 



140 

Where only five hours per week are given to school instruction, the 
work should be distinctly vocational, and the time devoted to drawing, 
shop calculations and mechanics. The instructors in the school should, 
however, know just what these boys are doing in the shops, and there 
should be such co-operation with the employer, foreman and superin- 
tendent that the boys wiU be changed from machine to machine and 
from department to department to enable them to get the broadest 
l^ossible practical experience. Where one shop is so equipped or is 
doing such a class of work that it is unable to offer such an experience, 
the school, through its instructors, should work out a plan whereby 
there can be an interchange of boys between the different establishments. 

Programs tor Confectionery Manufacturing. 
This industry is usually found in the large centers of population, 
notably in Boston and vicinity. Because of the low pay and the small 
amount of skill required, it seems to draw those of the least ability 
and education. It seems to take as long to learn to do such skilled 
work as packing as it does to learn some of the skilled operations per- 
formed by women in the shoe business, but this may be accounted for 
by the fact that a group of less ability enters this industry, and it 
naturally takes them longer to learn. It is probably true that the 
practical work of the candy factory can be better learned in the indus- 
try itself than in a school. 

Amount of Time and Suggested Programs. 
If part-time instruction for a group employed in the candy industry 
means a reduction in wage, the economic condition of the families em- 
ployed in this industry is such that they probably could not stand the 
loss of more than four or five hours per week. With this amount of 
time devoted to school instruction, it would hardly be practicable to 
offer more than training in the household arts. Where special groups 
could give half of their time, the school could probably give training 
which would extend their general education, as well as practical instruc- 
tion in power-machine operating, dressmaking and millinery, and 
discover if these girls could be fitted for any of these lines or for de- 
l^artment store employment. 

Programs for Department Stores. 
The girls and boys who enter this employment have a direct use for 
more general training in reading, writing and arithmetic than almost 
any other group. They have, on the whole, progressed farther in 
school, but they seem to be as much in need of instruction in the prac- 
tical applications of these subjects as are the individuals of any other 
group. The ability of the part-time school to give such instruction has 
been demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt. The work done in 



141 

training for salesmanship in department stores seems to have demon- 
strated the ability of the school to give training which will fit for other 
departments of the store not yet reached, and to give a training for 
young people employed in the mercantile business in general, including 
the errand and messenger service. For a further discussion of this 
phase of the problem see Appendix G, by Mrs. John T. Prince. 

Peinting and Publishing Peograms. 

Printing and publishing should, for the purpose of this study, be 
considered under two separate heads: (a) printing, (5) binding. 

The printing trade requires a very high degTee of sldll on the part 
of practically all its workers; while the work in the binderies could 
better be compared with that in the machine industry, in that it em- 
ploys a large number of people with little skill as specialists on one 
machine or operation. 

From the advance sheets of the United States Census for 1910, Table 
I, Appendix A, it would appear that in 1909 there were 768 young 
people between fourteen and seventeen years of age employed in this 
line of work in Massachusetts. Of these, 606 were boys and 162 girls. 
The printing trade takes boys under sixteen years of age, but rarely 
takes girls under this age. The binding trade, however, employs a 
larger percentage of girls, and the females reported were probably 
employed mainly in the binding. 

Programs of part-time schooling, then, should deal mainly with the 
printing trade, and aim to train compositors and pressmen, linotype 
and monotype operators. The girls employed in the binderies could 
be given little if anything in the way of vocational training, and the 
program would be similar to that suggested for confectionery estab- 
lishments. 

Amount and Arrangement of Time. 

It appears from interviews with employers and the study of the 
work in this industry that any one of three plans could be successfully 
operated in connection with the printing business. 

There is a gTeat deal along the line of vocational training which can 
be given in this trade, and the largest amount of time possible should 
be devoted to the school, preferably one half the working time. The 
time devoted to the school could be either every other week, half of each 
week or half of each day. 

The Lakeside Press of Chicago is now successfully operating a part- 
time school, and in answer to the question as to the best arrangement 
of time the following statement is made : — 

We run our school half-days instead of week about, for the reason, I 
believe, that this is more effective. A boy, after he has spent three and a 
half hours in the school, can then go into the factory without having his 
mind tired, and I believe that it brings the work of the boy in school in 



142 

closer touch with his work in the factory. Of course, if such a school 
is not in the same building as the factory, the week about would be a more 
practical scheme. 

If the school is located near the plant, the plan suggested above 
would work successfully, but on the whole it is probably true that the 
weekly plan will be found more feasible for Massachusetts. 

There are large numbers of small printing establishments employing 
one or two men and a boy. These establishments usually get out a 
small local paper and do job printing. It has been found that they 
are rushed for about two or three days a week and require the services 
of a boy during this time, but could get along without him the rest of 
the week. An arrangement is now made with three different establish- 
ments in Newton and vicinity whereby six different boys are working 
in a printing office part-time and attending the vocational school the 
rest of the week. 

Suggested Programs. 

A course in printing should be divided into two parts: training for 
compositors and training for pressmen. The school training should 
give first exiDerience in both press work and composition to make for 
a general understanding of the business, and later allow the boys to 
specialize in the department for which they seem best fitted. One half 
of the school time might be devoted to practical composition and press 
work, and the other half to English, history, civics, mathematics and 
design, a great deal of emphasis being laid on the latter. The printing 
trade is more and more in need of men who cannot only set type and 
run off work on the press, but who can produce pieces of work which 
are really beautiful from the standpoint of design. The International 
Typographical Union has already recognized this principle and offers 
an excellent course in design. 

The following suggestions embody a few of the principles which may 
be covered in a course of training for boys who intend to be compositors 
or pressmen : — 

Course of training for boys who intend to be compositors. 

1. How to stand in good position at the case. 

2. How to hold the composing stick, 

3. How to space a line correctly. 

4. Display composition. 

5. Book composition and makeup. 

Course of training for boys ivlio luisli to become pressmen. 

1. How to care for and oil the printing press. 

2. How to feed a press. 

(a) Eegister. 

(&) Use of the throw off. 

3. How to keep up the color. 

4. How to make ready. 



143 

In their vocational opportunities, girls are usually limited to the 
comiDosing room, and large numbers specialize on the linotype and 
monotype keyboards. The following is suggested as a part of their 
vocational course : — 

Coiirse of training for girls who wish to become compositors and heyioard 
operators for the monotype, 

1. How to hold the composing stick. 

2. How to space a line correctly. 

3. Practice in the use of the monotype keyboard. 

In addition to these, the course for girls should include the work in 
household arts suggested in the other programs. 

A statement from the Lakeside Press as to why their school was 
started could well be made to apply to the conditions and needs found 
in the printing trade in Massachusetts. Their statement follows : — 

The reason the school was started was to train our own apprentices. We 
found that the ordinary compositor was not trained thoroughly, but gen- 
erally had picked up his trade in a small country shop where the equipment 
and practice were both poor. He had drifted into the city, v joined the 
union and really acquired his metropolitan skill by holding one job after 
another until he had become competent to hold a job steadily. We felt 
that we could get very much better results by training our own boys, and 
we would also get an esprit de corps which we could not otherwise 
obtain. . . . 

The direct inspiration for this school came to me through an account I 
read in the report of the Bureau of Commerce and Labor on the apprentice- 
ship systems of Europe. A printing firm in Paris had had such a school 
for some eighty years, and it had worked successfully. . . . 

We did not intend at first to take boys until they were sixteen years old, 
as the laws of Illinois forbid a boy younger working more than eight 
hours a day, and our . factory runs nine hours for five days and five 
hours on Saturday. We found, however, that we could not obtain boys 
of the age of sixteen who had not been ruined by the two years of in- 
cidental employment and loafing around the streets. We accordingly made 
up our mind that we would take a boy directly when he graduated from 
grammar school at fourteen years, and keep our hand on him all the time. 
We do not take boys who do not graduate from grammar schools before 
they are fifteen, and we do not take boys who have worked anywhere 
else. . . . 

We think that the school is fulfilling its mission, and while it has 
been in existence only four years, and our oldest boys are just finishing 
the fourth year, I am confident that these boys are much better workmen 
than the ordinary boy of that age, and also are receiving much better 
general education. 



144 



CONCLUSIOIsr, 

A comprehensive plan of part-time schooling will not leave the con- 
sideration of the problem to the time when the child leaves school and 
takes the first job which offers an opportunity for employment, whether 
he is fitted for it or not, but will deal with him before he has gone 
beyond the reach of the school. An adequate working knowledge of 
the needs and possibilities of all its pupils, and the making of plans 
for meeting these needs, is a problem at least as large as that with 
which the schools are now dealing, and one which cannot be handled 
alone by a vocational or part-time system, or any other which is set 
off and apart from the agencies which first deal with the child. 

Every large school system needs an assistant superintendent whose 
special duty it shovild be to aid the general superintendent in organiz- 
ing and supervising all such work as relates to the child who is not 
going to high school or college. All vocational, trade, part-time and 
continuation schools, and all the manual activities of the regular ele- 
mentary and high schools, should be under his direction. In addition 
to this, there should be an attendance, school census and record depart- 
ment which should have the facts about all the children in the city, 
those not yet in school, those in school and those who have left up to 
the age of at least eighteen years. The organization of the right kind 
of attendance department requires a grasp of the whole educational 
problem, and should not be left to a clerk or a police ofi&cer. A depart- 
ment of educational and vocational guidance, related to every other 
department of the school system and to business and industry, should 
be organized and placed under the supervision of an educator with 
special qualifications for the kind of work. Such a department should 
co-operate closely with the attendance department. Principals and 
teachers in the elementary schools should be able to turn to it for 
advice as to the educational and vocational opportunities in the com- 
munity, and to secure help in deciding what is the best kind of training 
for different people with different needs. When these departments are 
properly organized, it will be quite possible to develop part-time or 
any other work needed in the community. In a small school system 
all of these functions will of necessity be combined under one head. 
If the commmiity is so small that it is financially unable to employ 
a person to do such work, then it should unite with another community 
which is similarly situated, in which case the State should exercise more 
careful supervision than would be necessary in the larger community. 

What is the Next Step in the Development of Practical Educa- 
tion IN Massachusetts. 
The next step in this State should be to urge each community to 
study its own needs, to ascertain the real facts about the schools, the 
children and the industries, and to create a public sentiment which will 



145 

make the community as a whole really face these facts, and do at least 
as much for the child who is going to work at fourteen as most com- 
munities are now doing for those who go to college. In this connection 
it is suggested that such information as the following be collected : — 

A. Information to he obtained regarding the Schools and the Children. 

(1) How many children of each age are there in the community? 

(a) How many are in school f 
(&) How many are at work? 
(c) How many are neither in school nor at work, and why? 

(2) How many age and schooling certificates are granted each year? 

(a) For what industries are they taken out? 

(6) "What are the ages of the children to whom these are granted? 

(c) What grade have they reached in school, and if a low grade, 

why? 

(d) Are they physically able to do the work which they plan to 

undertake, and how is it known what the physical require- 
ments are? 

(3) Of the children in the grades, how many are one or more years be- 

hind their classes? 
(a) Is it due to overcrowding in the class rooms? 
(6) Is it due to the presence of defective or foreign-bofn children 

in the classes? 
(c) It is due to work which is ill suited to their needs and to poor 

teaching? 

(4) Of the children in the grades, how many plan to go to high school, 

and what are their chances, financial or otherwise, of doing 
this? 

(5) Of the children in the high school, how many plan to go to college, 

and how many can really do so? 

(6) What is the best kind of training that can be offered to those who are 

not going to college? 

(7) What means are now used to find out what are the future plans of 

parents and children for the life work of the latter? 

B. Information to be obtained regarding Indtistries in the Community,, 
both those which employ Children and those which^ do not talce Young 
People under eighteen years. 

(1) What kinds of work do children enter upon leaving school? 

(a) How many are skilled and how many are unskilled occupa- 
tions? 

(6) What is the future in each? 

(c) What training can be given in school which will enable them 
to gain a better entrance to the industry? 

(2) What are the undesirable industries from the standpoint of ability 

to advance? 
(o) Should we train away from such industries? 
(6) If so, what kind of training should we give? 

(3) What kind of training can be given those already in the industry 

which will make them more efficient workers and fit them for 
promotion? 



146 



C. Questions to he considered in meeting these Needs. 

(1) What can be done with children who neither work nor go to school? 

(a) How many are capable of work and how many are not? 

(b) What can be done in the way of vocational education? 

(c) What can be done for children and adults already at work? 

(1) Through part-time day courses. (2) Through evening 
courses. 

(2) What schemes of part-time work have been inaugurated in other cities? 

(a) How were they started? 

(3) What is the best way for this particular community to start part- 

time or any other vocational work? 
(a) Are there manufacturers in the city who will co-operate with 

the schools? 
(&) Can they furnish teachers? 

(c) Would part of their plants be available? 

(d) How many young people could be accommodateii in such a 

plant? 

(e) How should they be selected? 

(/) How should the work be supervised? 

(g) How much would it cost the community for such instruction? 

Those who have the educational interests of the city or town in their 
keeping might well secure the co-operation of employers and others 
in studying this problem. Such a study recently made in the city of 
Quincy resulted in a report with recommendations to the school com- 
mittee and city government that more practical work along the lines 
of manual training, cooking and sewing be offered to all children in 
the grades; that a full-time day vocational school be established for 
those who can profitably devote from one to three j^ears to a school 
with practical courses, and that for those who are already in the trade 
IDart-time courses be established. This study revealed the real needs 
in the community, interested those who are employing young help, 
showed them how they could contribute to the solution of the problem, 
and made those responsible for the finances of the city realize that, as 
a matter of justice, something should be done to make the schools meet 
the needs of all the children in the community.^ 

1 A similar study is soon to appear, "A Trade School for Girls," which is a report of a pre- 
liminary investigation in a typical manufacturing city, Worcester, Mass., made by the Depart- 
ment of Research of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston. Three other 
studies which will throw light upon the industrial training for girls will be published in 1913 by 
the Department of Research, one on dressmaking, one on millinery, and the third a study of 
vthe boot and shoe industry. 



147 



Appendix G. 



PART-TIME EDUCATION IN COMMERCIAL ESTABLISH- 
MENTS. 

Mrs. John T. Prince. 

Introduction. 

In the 5'ear 1911 there were approximately 4,000 boys and girls be- 
tween fourteen and seventeen years of age in the department stores of 
Massachusetts; or one tenth of all the young people at work in this 
State. As a group they are poorly educated, of poor home traditions, 
undernourished and unambitious; yet it is from this group that many 
of the leaders in commerce have been in the past largely drawn. The 
question, therefore, which this report attempts to answer is, how may 
this class be further helped by education? And in what form should 
that education be given? What are the needs of this group, and the 
needs of the store and the community in relation to this group, and 
how should these needs be satisfied? 

There are three chief sources of material to be used in a considera- 
tion of this problem: (1) the published report of the Commission on 
Minimum Wage Boards; (2) personal interviews by agents of this in- 
vestigation with managers and superintendents of department stores; 
and (3) the records of the salesmanshijD school of the Women's Edu- 
cational and Industrial Union, to which we shall refer hereafter as the 
Union School of Salesmanship. 

The report of the Commission on Minimum Wage Boards furnishes 
material on the economic condition of the women of the department- 
store group, wliile the personal interviews have presented the point of 
view of managers as to the needs of the store in its relation to the 
young workers. The material of the School of Salesmanship is of 
unique value. The school has kept an exact record of the educational 
and industrial history of each pupil in the school up to her entrance, 
her progress during training, and an annual record of her position, 
firm and wage afterwards. It is therefore possible to discover to some 
extent what effect vocational training actually has had on the girl who 
has been trained. It is fair to assume that whatever effect the school 
has had on the 247 girls of whom we have complete records (about one 
half of the total enrollment of the school), it would be equalled by 
similar training for the much larger group investigated by the Mini- 
mi;m Wage Commission, since the gToup reached by the school was 



148 



slightly below the level of the larger group as to nationality and also 
wage. That is, the gi-oup of the school was, measured in terms of 
dollars and cents, less capable before their training than the general 
run of department-store women. The importance of such a record of 
an actual experiment with a group in no way exceptional is absolutely 
beyond estimate. 

Table I. — Ntimher and percentage of store employees who were native 
and foreign horn. 





By this school group. 


By MINIMUM WAGE IN- 
VESTIGATION. 




FIRST GENERA- 
TION. 


SECOND GENERA- 
TION. 


FIRST GENERA- 
TION. 


SECOND GENERA- 
TION. 




Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 
cent. 


Num- 
ber. 


Per 

cent. 


Native born, 
Foreign born, 


210 
42 


81.7 
18.2 


83 32.4 
174 67.6 


2,207 
454 


83 
17 


880 
1,781 


33.0 
66.9 



Table I shows the number and percentage of women who are of the 
first generation of native or foreign birth; that is, it shows the number 
and percentage of those who were actually born in this country and 
those who were not. It also shows the number and percentage of those 
who are born of native or foreign parents; that is, of the second gen- 
eration; and it shows this for two groups, the group attending the 
Union School and the much larger and certainly typical gTOup investi- 
gated by the Minimum Wage Commission. 

Table I shows that 81.7 per cent, of the Union School group are 
native born, as compared to 83 per cent, of the minimum wage gToup ; 
that only 32.4 per cent, are born of native parents, as compared to 
33 per cent, in the minimum wage gi'oup. Such a close relation in 
these proportions indicates that the Union School group was not 
selected. 



Table II.^ — Ages of women in retail stores in Boston. 



Under 16, . 
16 to 17, . 
18 to 20, . 
21 to 24, . 
25 and over, 



At TIME OF ATTENDANCE 
IN SALESMANSHIP SCHOOL. 



Number. 



1 
32 
116 

79 
28 



Per cent. 



.4 
12.5 
45.7 
30.9 
10.9 



In ALL Boston 

STORES IN THE MINIMUM 
WAGE INVESTIGATION. - 



Number. 



109 

282 
442 
417 
561 



Per cent. 



6.0 
15.6 
24.4 
23.0 
31.0 



» See Table IV. 



2 From report of Commission on Minimum Wage Boards, p. 96. 



149 

Table II shows the number and percentage of women at each age in 
the Salesmanshii3 School and in the larger group investigated by the 
Minimum Wage Commission. The same fact may be inferred from 
this table as from Table I. The pupils of the Union School came 
largely from the gToup which contains the greater proportion of de- 
partment-store workers, — 45.7 per cent, from the group of eighteen 
to twenty years of age. There were few very young girls and few, 
though not an inconsiderable proportion, 10.9 per cent., twenty-five 
years of age and over. In a sense, the Union School group is typical 
of workers in department stores. 

In 1905 and 1906 the work of the Union School was still in its ex- 
perimental stage. It began with a small class whose only selling experi- 
ence was that furnished by the food sales room of the union, — an 
experience entirely different from that of department stores. In Janu- 
ary, 1906, a second class of six members took up the work. These 
girls, too, had only the limited experience which the union itself could 
offer in selling. The year following six of the leading stores of Boston 
joined to co-operate with the school. The superintendents of these 
stores formed an advisory committee for the school, meeting once a 
month with the president of the union and the director of the class for 
discussion and conference. These meetings had a reciprocal influence; 
they kept the school alive to meet the real needs of the store, and they 
kept the store alive to the value of training. They also cemented the 
bond between the store and the school, — a factor which has largely 
contributed to the success of the school. 

The policy as planned with the advisory committee at this time was 
that candidates should be sent from the stores and admitted to the 
school if approved by the director; that they should sell in the stores 
on each Monday, and should be paid $1 for this service. This arrange- 
ment was found to be unsatisfactory. The girls needed more actual 
experience in the store, and the most promising candidates could not 
afford, or were not willing to afford, the loss in wage incurred. After 
consultation with the advisory committee the time schedule was changed 
so that the girls spent half their time in school and half at the store, 
and for this half-time work were paid $3. They came to the school 
from 8.30 to 11 a.m. and from 4.30 to 5.30 p.m. 

The only important change since then has been in the liours of attend- 
ance and the wage. The pupils now come from 8.30 to 11.30 a.m., and 
do not return to the school in the afternoon. They are paid the full 
wage, which they receive at the time of entering the school; no deduc- 
tion at all is made for the time spent in the school. This means that 
the school has passed the experimental stage, that it is an established 
success in the opinion of the stores which are trying to have the school 
enlarge its membership, and also in the opinion of the workers, who 
continue to apply in much greater numbers than can be admitted. The 
records of this school and the experience of its director, together with 



150 



the material of the Minimum Wage Boards Commission and the per- 
sonal interviews of the agents of this investigation, should be sufficient 
to form accurate conclusions as to the need for and the practicability 
of part-time schooling. 

II. Need for Training. 
In comparison with the other young workers in industry the em- 
ployees of department stores seem to be relatively more fortunate in 
education. They are not so frequently forced by the pressure of poverty 
from the school as soon as the law ceases to hold them, and they are not 
so largely a " backward " group. Only 7 per cent, left school before the 
eighth grade; the majority, 56 per cent., left in the eighth and ninth; 
more than a third, 37 per cent., went into high school. The demands 
of the stores for as gi'eat an amount of schooling as they can get in 
their workers is increasing and may make these young people, from an 
educational point of view, a selected group in the larger mass of boys 
and girls at work. One store will not accept any one in any depart- 
ment of the store who has not a gi-ammar school diploma, and also 
refuses all who are under seventeen years, because the very young 
workers are not educationally fit. 



Table III. — Age left public scJiool. 

From the records of Union School of Salesmanship. 







Age left. 




13. 


14. 


15. 


16. 


17. 


18. 


19. 


20. 


Number, .... 


20 
8.2 


72 
29.3 


60 
24.5 


38 1 30 


20 


4 


1 


Per cent., .... 


27.7 




10.2 







Table III shows the number and percentage leaving school at each 
age; 8.2 per cent, left school before the legal age; 29.3 per cent, left 
school at fourteen years; 24.5 per cent, left at fifteen years; 37.9 per 
cent, left at sixteen years or over, which is an unusually high propor- 
tion for an industry employing juvenile help. 

Yet this proportion is not what it might be if the schools offered 
what would hold the interest of these young people longer. Forty-one 
per cent, left because school failed to interest them, either because it 
did not offer the means to livelihood, or because they were behind their 
class, or because they wanted to work. Only 40 per cent, were forced 
to leave; less than half came from families who needed either the wage 
they could earn or their work in the home. The remainder left school 
for various personal reasons. Two fifths could not have stayed in 
school no matter what attractive or valuable training might be offered, 
but two fifths of the girls might, it seems, have been kept longer in 



151 

school if they had been offered a course sufficiently practical to arouse 
their interest. 

Now, while measured by the age they left school and by the grade 
they reached in school, these children might seem prepared, yet meas- 
ured by the knowledge they have acquired they are seriously handi- 
capped. Although 93 per cent, of these girls have spent seven years 
or more in school, they have not acquired the rudiments of an educa- 
tion. It was found at the Salesmanship School that it was necessary 
to begin at the very beginning in arithmetic. One test question, " How 
much would % of a yard of a ribbon cost at 19 cents a yard V — a 
problem not uncommon in stores, — brought answers from 1 cent to 
5 cents out of the way, and, further, brought out the fact that they 
really did not know anything about the process of arriving at an 
answer. The usual method was to ask the more experienced girl next 
to them, who had gained her knowledge by asking the girl next to her, 
— a process fraught with all the hazards of uncertain memories and 
remote traditions. The voice of store managers and superintendents 
is almost unanimous in condemning the unfitness of school training for 
practical work; they estimate that about half of those admitted to the 
stores are forced to leave and go into an unskilled trade, and that 75 
per cent, fail of promotion because they lack the fundamental three R's. 
There is evidently a very great need for more efficient general training 
to prepare the necessary foundation for any life work. These young 
people lack the confidence and the reasonable hope that makes ambition 
possible; they are cut off at the very start from many chances of 
success. . 

There is a training in the elements of commercial life just as neces- 
sary to special success as the fundamental education supposed to be 
given in our grammar schools is to all success. These elements are the 
" tools of the trade." A knowledge of the selling points of goods, 
familiarity with store system, quick appreciation and practical knowl- 
edge of the method of handling the different varieties of customers, — 
these are things which are the three R's of the selling business. It is 
absurd to expect the girl behind the counter to pick up this knowledge. 
After years of experience and blunders she has an empirical knowledge 
of what one can and cannot say to customers, what the qualities of the 
goods she sells are and how the mechanics of selling should be con- 
ducted. But the principles which underlie this knowledge, which would 
haye made its acquirement infinitely easier and its application so much 
surer, she will never know unless she is of an exceptionally inquiring 
mind. She knows that a serge wears better than a broadcloth, but to 
the customer's why she can only answer in vague, general terms that 
it does, because everybody finds it so. 

To the girl the training means all the difference between a dull task 
mechanically performed and an opportunity to exercise every atom of 
brain and knowledge in a game of skill, competing with other eager 



152 



young minds for high rewards. Instead of being eight hours of me- 
chanical work they may be hours of keenest living and largest oppor- 
tunity for the development of personality. Add to this interest in the 
work the happiness of efficiency and the -comfort of prosperity, then the 
universal testimony of the girls to their affection for the school will 
be no cause for wonder. The conclusive argument for the value of 
training to the young worker is to be found in the accompanying table, 
which shows that while before their training the Union Salesmanship 
pupils as a group were below the normal group investigated by the 
Commission on Minimum Wage Boards, after it they were decidedly 
above it. 

Table IV. — Comparison of earnings of group investigated by the 
Commission on Minimum Wage Boards with earnings of girls 
' attending salesmanship classes before and after their training. 





Cumulative number of women with 
average weekly earnings of — 




$4 and 
under. 


$5nnd 
under. 


$S and 
under. 


$7 and 
under. 


$8 and 
under. 


Over $8. 


Minimum Wage Commission, 


358 


554 


973 


1,375 


1,672 


S45 


Union Scliool of Salesmanship: 














Before training, 


4 


32 


56 


136 


159 


21 


After training, 


- 


- 


1 


29 


77 


50 





Cumulative percentage of women with 
average weekly earnings of — 




$4 and 
under. 


$5 and 
under. 


$6 and 
under. 


$7 and 
under. 


$8 and 
under. 


Over .?8. 


Minimum Wage Commission, . 
Union ScliooI of Salesmansliip: 

Before training. 

After training. 


14.2 
2.2 


22.0 
11.9 


38.6 

31.0 
0.7 


54.7 

75.4 
21.5 


66.4 

88.2 
57.3 


33.6 

11.8 
42.7 



Table IV shows the number and percentage of girls at each wage 
before their training and after, as compared to the normal group pre- 
sented by the Minimum Wage Commission; 31 per cent, received $6 
or less before the training; after the training only 0.7 per cent, received 
$6 and under. Before training only 11.8 per cent, received more than 
$8 a week remuneration ; after the training 42.7 per cent, received more 
than $8 a week. The Minimum Wage Commission found only 33.6 per 
cent, earning more than $8 a week. That is, the training actually raised 
a subnormal group above the normal. 



153 

That such willing service must mean a very different return to the 
store from the haughty and unwilling attitude of the ordinary un- 
trained saleswoman is obvious. These young women, besides showing 
such fundamental change in the spirit of their work, do possess the tools 
of efficiency, without which the most willing spirit must fall short. The 
stores need such training for their workers almost as much as the 
workers need it for themselves. 

There is another interest very rarely touched upon in such considera- 
tions, but one that, here at least, should not be overlooked, — the interest 
of the public. Since little clothing is made in the home now it is no 
longer as possible for the housewife to buy intelligently, as formerly. 
It should therefore be the function of the salesperson to give advice, 
which has knowledge behind it, and to meet the individual needs of all 
customers. The good service they could do the world by expert under- 
standing of the needs of different people and the possibilities of satis- 
fying them is inestimable. From every point of view, therefore, there 
is a real and urgent need of vocational training for the young people 
in department stores. 

III. Means existing at Presbistt for Training in Sai^esmanship. 

Since the work began, nearly seven years ago, at the Women's Edu- 
cational and Industrial Union in Boston, there has been a gradual 
awakening all over the country to the need of just that training which 
was devised and put into practice for the saleswomen of Boston. 
Largely through this influence schools of salesmanship have been estab- 
lished in stores and schools in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kalamazoo, Chi- 
cago, St. Louis and San Francisco, with leaders trained by the organizer 
of the Union School. That is, the work which began obscurely and 
experimentally has answered so trulj' to a need that it has spread over 
the country. 

Besides stores in these five cities, the Wanamaker stores have estab- 
lished schools under their owif roof. The schools of the Wanamaker 
stores differ radically from those which are or have been connected 
with the Union School of Salesmanship. Here the boys and girls who 
have not a diploma from the grammar school are put under the instrac- 
tion of regular public school teachers until they gTaduate. The store 
has done this to supplement the insufficient education of the young 
workers. 

In Boston six stores send pupils to the Union School. Other stores 
have tried to have their workers admitted to the school, and the stores 
that have always sent pupils have tried to have the school enlarged so 
that it would take a larger proportion of those who need to come. 
Since it has been impossible to enlarge the school, the stores have, in 
three of these cases, established schools under their own roofs, which 
are earned on by teachers trained in the Union School. But stores 



154 

are not primarily fitted for educational work, and tend to narrow the 
training to just the mechanics of store work, — a knowledge of the sales 
slip and the store system, — whereas the public school can train for the 
larger issue of civic responsibility as well. 

In Germany, the pioneer country in industrial education, there has 
been training in textiles for some time ; but in no country and in no city 
of the world until it was established in Boston has there ever been any- 
thing resembling the course of salesmanship now taken as a standard in 
so many places in the United States. In this at least we are first in the 
field, — and it is still largely an open field. The whole number trained 
by the school in Boston is a very small proportion of the 4,000 which 
it is now proposed to educate. 

Apprenticeship. 

It might be supposed that since there are so few vocational schools 
there must exist in the stores some more informal species of training, 
like the old apprenticeship system. This is not so. Formerly, workers 
were taken on young, who were expected to remain permanently. That 
is, the owner of a store had definitely the future prospects of the young 
helper in his eye when he entered the store. Now there is nothing of 
that sort. Provided the applicants will make tolerable cash girls or 
stock boys, nothing further, as a rule, is asked or required of them. 
They are admitted in vast hordes to this outer court, and those get to 
the inner temple who can. That is, they are simply given the oppor- 
tunity to " pick up " some knowledge of the store and of goods, and 
all the responsibility for their advancement is on themselves. Yet these 
people who are expected to grasp knowledge eagerly and seek advance- 
ment boldly are still very young, somewhat less timid, perhaps, than 
their brothers and sisters in sheltered schools, but still little more than 
children. The stores complain that they cannot find enough capable 
people for responsible positions, yet they restrict the flow at its very 
source, by not attempting to choose or shape the training of the young 
peojDle who enter the store in minor positions for the advanced positions 
which are so difficult to fill. And are they in fault in this? The problem 
is no longer the store's problem ; it belongs to the State and the school. 

Throughout the entire oi-ganization of the store it is the same. The 
workers absorb what scraps of knowledge lie on the surface, and on 
the strength of this some demand more pay, and a few, more respon- 
sibility. The vast majority do not know when they are worth more 
pay, and so are discouraged, or at least so little encouraged by this 
knowledge, which they themselves feel to be scrappy and uncertain 
and based on still more uncertain foundations, that they do not dare to 
undertake responsible positions even when they are offered to them. 
The stores, like the faetorized industries, are caught in the eddy be- 
tween the tide of apprenticeship, which is retreating, and the stream 
of industrial education and State responsibility, which is yet in its 
feeble beginnings. 



155 



Possible Means of Education. 
It has, therefore, been established that the children in department 
stores need vocational and general training, and that it is necessary for 
the good of the stores and the public. The question then, becomes, 
what is the most desirable form for this education to take? Should 
it be given in evening school work; should the compulsory day-school 
period be extended to include it; or should it be given in some form 
of part-time school? 

The first two possibilities are easily disposed of. It is impossible for 
a young person to do good work eight hours a day in the store and 
do good thinking for two hours in the evening. There are few people 
now who question the truth of this. The evening schools provide 
opportunity for the exceptionally ambitious, and it is agreed that even 
these are forced to slight either the day work or their school work, or, 
Avhat is more disastrous, their health. Moreover, a part-time or day- 
school period would eliminate the social and moral disadvantages of 
the evening school, which is often misused by boys and girls from 
fourteen to seventeen years of age as a meeting place. If the part-time 
schooling is made compulsory between the ages of fourteen and seven- 
teen the young people will not lose what was gained in the elementary 
schools; and the discipline of some regular work, so directed that it 
will hold them, will develop ambition and raise standards which will 
tend to make them want evening school when they are older and phys- 
ically better able to stand the strain. This is actually one of the out- 
comes of the splendid continuation system of Munich. After finishing 
compulsory continuation school, at the age of seventeen or eighteen 
years, the boys then wish to continue at the evening schools. An ex- 
tension of the compulsory day-school period would be possible for that 
40 per cent, of the 4,000 who left school because it failed to interest 
them; but there would be no need to make the extension compulsory 
if courses were offered which would interest them. Automatically some 
portion of them would sift into the group staying longer at school. 
For the 40 per cent, who were forced by the pressure of necessity to 
leave school, any extension of the period of schooling would mean 
severe hardship. It should not be considered as possible at all. Even 
for those who leave school because they " hate it," it is not evident 
that it would be desirable for them to stay longer, even if the training 
offered were of a sort to interest them. They are a type interested 
much more in doing things than in studying, and are much more likely 
to be induced to think if they are offered things to do to think about. 
That is, for two fifths of the group part-time schooling is the only 
form which is economically possible ; for another two fifths it is prob- 
ably more desirable than full-time schooling. The question remaining 
for discussion is, then, is part-time school practicable? Can the stores 
prosper with it, can the children afford it, can the State manage to 
give it? 



156 

The answer to the first part of this question is necessarily more or 
less conjectural. Part-time schooling would mean that there would have 
to be some extra force to fill the places of those who are at school. 
Already most stores have a group of extra workers to fill the places 
of those who are ill; part-time schooling might mean some enlargement 
of this force. It would depend entirely on the months and the hours 
taken for the school. If the school is not ojDened in the rush seasons 
at Christmas and Easter, if it will be content with eight hours, or two 
mornings each week, there is no reason to suppose that the necessary 
number added to the force should be very large. It must be considered 
that workers who are at school are much more efiicient than those ab- 
sorbed in the dull routine of the day; that they are quite capable, 
except where the work is of such a mechanical nature as to require a 
fixed number of workers all the time, of performing their full work 
in the five sixths of the time ordinarily allowed. The pupils of the 
Union School of Salesmanship after a few weeks' training sell as much 
in half a day as they did formerly in their full day. Considering, 
therefore, the very great advantage which the stores would derive from 
properly trained helpers, it does not seem as if some slight addition 
to the extra force should prohibit part-time schooling. 

The question of the possibility for the children of affording part- 
time schooling depends on the first question, — that of the store's atti- 
tude. The stores have to come to the point where they feel that 
training, efficient as it is in the school of the Women's Educational and 
Industrial Union, is worth the time of their workers at full pay. It 
is more than probable that they will feel the same way about a State 
school if they are convinced that it will be as efficient. That is, in all 
probability there will be, there should be, no question of the possibility 
of affording such training for the boys and girls in the stores. And 
this should not be considered philanthropy on the part of the stores; 
an enlightened self-interest would dictate the same position. The crux 
of the question lies in the efficiency of such schools ; an inefficient school 
would be far worse than none at all, since it would check a movement 
already well under Avay. 

The final point then, remains, can the State manage to give the train- 
ing efficiently? There are few material difficulties. Such a school 
requires less equipment than any other; tables, chairs and a black- 
board are all that are absolutely necessary. A good textile exhibit is 
also essential, but this could be acquired gTadually, and is in no way 
a prohibitory expense. Teachers are the one important and expensive 
part of the equipment, and care must be taken that enough teachers 
are ready for the continuation school before the training is made com- 
pulsory. 

On account of the great demand for teachers, not only in Boston but 
in many other cities, a normal course for the training of teachers is 



157 

carried on in connection with the Salesmanship School, This course 
consists of the observation and practice of teaching in the school, with 
correlated store work and critical analysis of all work; advanced 
courses in education, aj^plied psychology and textiles; and of actual 
store experience on Mondays and during holiday seasons. A six weeks' 
course in economics of industry is oft'ered by Simmons College. 

Of the 15 teachers who have taken the training, 9 were college grad- 
uates, 2 normal school graduates and 4 had no special training. The 
8 now in training are all college graduates, most of whom have had 
teaching experience besides. The director is convinced that a broad 
college education is desirable for the best development of this work. 
The problems involve psychology, economics and ethics; and since the 
great end is to develop the poiver of the individual pupil, that he may 
come into his own and find that joy in his work which, after all, is the 
foundation of efficiency, the teachers must have teaching ability, right 
attitude to business and social vision. These teachers also, whether 
working in stores or schools, must have constructive ability to adapt 
the work to the particular problem in hand. With properly trained 
teachers great difficulties still remain in the educational deficiencies of 
these young people and the complexity of the problem of the stores. 
Only the fact that the seemingly impossible has been actually accom- 
plished, and a subnormal group made more than normally efficient, 
makes the jDroposition seem practical at all. 

In the true continuation school the large amount of training that 
is necessary for instruction in elementary school subjects would not 
be required, but if the work be given to them in the continiiation 
school in the bare and abstract form in which it is presented in ele- 
mentary schools, the pupils will fail here also from lack of co-ordina- 
tion. Every item of knowledge should be shown to them in a form 
related to their work; they should be made to see and understand their 
need for just such and such knowledge in the store before it is given 
to them at all. They should, and they do, develop a real appetite for 
this definite, practical knowledge; and there naturally results a much 
swifter mental growth than that which follows on the forced feeding 
process of unrelated schooling. It further has the advantage of mak- 
ing the work appear as one whole, instead of dividing life into the 
academic and the practical, — the fallacious and immeasurably harmful 
division of common tradition. The training should be jiTst as broad 
as it can be made and keep the interest of the pupils, touching not 
only all depai-tments of the store, but all departments of knowledge 
which arouse the interest of the pupils. The primary object of all 
education is not merely to increase the value of our children for their 
future employer, but to make them, each one, happy, resourceful 
and mentally free and responsible. Viewed from this point it is for- 
tunate that business efficiency involves to so great an extent a union 



158 

of just such qualities. Training for salesmanship means training for 
a very high type of manhood and womanhood, not incidentally, but 
first, last and always. 

The working program of the Union School of Salesmanship keeps 
this aim in view throughout its practical program. In particular it 
strives to develop those qualities which Avould enable the pupils to 
succeed as saleswomen. What these qualities are was determined 
partly by a personal investigation of the needs of the average un- 
trained salesgirl and a long acquaintance with her problems and dis- 
couragements, and partly through conferences with superintendents. 
The resulting needs were found to be: the development of a profes- 
sional, responsible attitude towards the work; the development of a 
pleasing iDersonality ; the inculcation of habits of order and systematic 
attention to detail ; instruction in the qualities of merchandise ; and, 
finally, knowledge of the science of selling. The subjects taught have 
been directly chosen for these needs. For the development of a pro- 
fessional attitude toward the work alone there has been no specific 
course, because that is the keynote of all the instruction. Under the 
other heads, the following program has grown up : (1) To develop 
.a pleasing j^ersonality : hygiene, especially personal hygiene, includ- 
ing a study of daily menus on the limited means of the saleswomen, 
ventilation, bathing, sleeping, exercise, recreation and proper clothing 
for comfort and health, as a part of business honesty; neatness in 
-dress, and good manners toward the customer. (2) To develop habits 
of system and attention to detail: saleshp practice, a study of store 
directories, business arithmetic, business forms and cash accounts; it 
is here, of course, that the training in arithmetic comes. (3) Instruc- 
tion in the qualities of merchandise : a study of color and line design, 
and of textiles. (4) The science of salesmanship: discussion of store 
.experience, demonstration sales, the development in class of the prin- 
cipal divisions of the sale and the method of handling each, the devel- 
opment in class of a classification of customers and the proper method 
-of selling for each, and, finally, lectures from buyers and other people 
of a wide store experience for general points. It has been the pur- 
pose, also, to arouse interest in the problems and opportunities of the 
wage-earning class, — the meaning of capital and wages, the just rela- 
tion of income to expenditure, the use of leisure time, commerce and 
industry, the consumers' league, trade unions and civic responsibilities. 

This program gives only a faint notion of the rich possibilities of 
the training. In the study of color and design in costumes these young 
people acquire a knowledge of the elementary principles which under- 
lie all art, and which, therefore, furnish them with a key to the appre- 
ciation of pictures and sculpture, — an opportunity entirely closed to 
most peoj^le of such slight education and such uninspired surround- 
ings; the study of textiles, means for the simpler understanding of the 



159 

highly complex modern processes, — a study of the simple processes 
from which they evolved. That, in turn, leads to the study of the 
people and the times in which the spinning wheel and the hand loom 
flourished. The pupils are delighted with this part of the work; it 
casts the glamour of romantic old times over the things which they 
handle daily. They come to this study of a history of that in which 
they are deeply concerned with an interest as vivid as it was dull for 
the dates of battles and the political intrigues of school history. Every 
lecture and every visit to factory or workshop, every store experience 
is an opportunity for them to write, and they seize it eagerly. They 
want to tell of the things they have learned and are anxious to learn 
to express clearly and accurately that which comes tumbling from their 
lips. It often happens that these girls are really dumb before pencil 
and paper; they cannot write a sentence. They struggle hard to over- 
come this obstacle to their free expression. 

Wherever a natural interest has been aroused the school res]Donds 
to it naturally. That is the value of a flexible curriculum and of a 
teacher who will take advantage of its flexibility, — a teacher with a 
wide general knowledge and a talent for adaptability as well as ac- 
curate knowledge of the subject of salesmanship. 

Of course, the program of the Union Salesmanship School cannot, 
and should not, be reproduced exactly for a continuation school which 
will deal with children between fourteen and seventeen years of age, 
since whatever knowledge they may have acquired in their elementary 
schooling will not have been dulled by disuse. That is, it is not prob- 
able that so large an amount of time will have to be spent in the 
review of elementary school subjects. On the other hand, such a 
young gTOup will have had very little chance at selling. They will 
not have so wide a basis of experience for training. They will, how- 
ever, have enough " store " experience to appreciate the relation 
between the school and the store, no matter in what department they 
are working. It will also be possible to follow farther than the Union 
Salesmanship School can the lines of interest of the pupils into the 
wide fields of commercial and civic affairs. It will be possible in such a 
school to do even more for the young people than the Union School 
has ever hoped to do. 

Surely, then, there is no question about a part-time school for the 
children between fourteen and seventeen years of the department 
stores. The stores and the public need efficient salesmen and sales- 
women, and the department-store emploj^ees need to be efficient to be 
happy and to hope for prosperity. There are none of the usual diffi- 
culties in the way of establishing the school; the way has been paved 
by a successful experiment; no expensive equipment to be acquired, 
no opposition of the industrial leaders to overcome. Here, if any- 
where, the path is smooth for a part-time school. 



INDEX 



Adult Workers: included in studjr, 
30, 62; groups selected from the 
different industries and number in 
each, 45; number interviewed, 45. 
In Machine Shops, 63; reasons for 
leaving mill (table), 64; average 
wage of those who began in ma- 
chine shops (table), 64; previous 
record of men (table), 65. 

Age and Schooling Certificates, 30, 
35, 44, 103. 

Apprenticeship System: former sys- 
tems, 8, 84 ; effect of recent changes 
of methods of manufacturing, 14, 
85; need of replacing, 86; im- 
practicability, 86 ; in boot and shoe 
industrj^ 87; form used in connec- 
tion with unions to find out num- 
ber of apprentices in boot and shoe 
industry, 93; study of large shoe 
factory which trains young work- 
ers, 94-98. 

Boot and Shoe Industry: number of 
children employed, 9; per cent, of 
workers beginning work at fourteen 
years of age, 10; reason for study- 
ing, 29; large wage received by 
young workers not without dis- 
advantages, 53; nativity and par- 
entage of workers (table), 74, 75; 
grade reached in school (table) , 76 ; 
age leaving school (table), 76; re- 
tardation in school (table) , 77 ; kind 
of training needed, 77; method of 
learning, -78; number of changes 
of occupation made in six years 
(table), 78; per cent, on skilled 
and unskilled work, 78, 79; shift- 
ing of workers, 79; advantage of 
foreign born over native born in 
learning trade, 79; wages received 
after six years in industry (table), 
80; increases in wage over initial 
wage for groups one and six years 
at work in industry (table), 81; 
wages received after one year in 
industry (table), 82; kind of work 
desired by children employed, 83; 



Boot and Shoe Industry — Con. 

methods of learning trade, 91, 92, 
109, 110; practicability of part- 
time schooling, 107-112; form used 
in collecting information, 108, 109; 
suggested programs for schools, 
oi'ganization, and amount of time, 
137; programs of training, 138, 139. 

Boston. See Boot and Shoe Industry. 

Brockton. See Boot and Shoe Indus- 
try. 

Children: number between the ages 
of fourteen and seventeen not in 
school, 9; number between four- 
teen and seventeen years of age 
neither in school nor regularly at 
work, 27; method used in esti- 
mating number neither in school 
nor at work, 31, 32. 

Children at Work: number, 9; per 
cent, beginning work at or about 
fourteen years of age, 9; previous 
schooling, 10; method of inter- 
viewing, 30; chief industries em- 
ploying with comparison of years 
1904 and 1909 (table), 33, 34; num- 
ber of children at work as found in 
truant officers' reports, as com- 
pared with the number of age and 
schooling certificates issued in 
1912 (table), 35; number inter- 
viewed for this study, 44; groups 
selected and number in each, 44; 
amount of schooling received, 45; 
age on leaving s,chool for those 
entering various industries (table), 
46; percentage leaving each grade 
to enter various industries (table), 
47; length of period of retardation 
and percentage of those so retarded 
entering different industries (table) , 
48; percentage of those out of 
school one year employed in differ- 
ent industries earning a given 
wage (table), 49; percentage of 
those out of school six j^ears em- 
ployed in different industries earn- 
ing a given wage (table), 50; per- 



162 



Children at Work — Con. 

centage in skilled and unskilled 
work in different industries after 
one j-ear and six years of employ- 
ment (table), 51; time required to 
advance to skilled work in different 
industries and percentage so ad- 
vancing for groups out of school 
six years (table), 52; percentage 
receiving specified increases in 
different industries (table), 52; 
effect of monotonous work, 54. 
See also Unemployed Boys. 

Cincinnati. >See Printing and Pub- 
lishing Industry and Machine In- 
dustry. 

Commercial Establishments. See 
Department Stores. 

Confectionery Industry: number of 
children employed, 9; per cent, of 
workers beginning work at four- 
teen years of age, 10; reason for 
studying, 30; number interviewed, 
67; per cent, of workers seventeen 
years of age or under, 67; na- 
tionality of workers, 67; age at 
leaving school (table), 68; grade 
left (table), 68; length of period of 
retardation and percentage re- 
tarded (table), 69; methods of 
learning trade (table), 69; per- 
centage on sldlled and unskilled 
work (table), 70; practicability of 
part-time schooling, 116, 117; 
cumulative number and percent- 
age of women under eighteen years 
of age classified bj' earnings (table), 
116; attitude of workers toward 
wage reduction to allow for part- 
time schooling (table), 117; atti- 
tude of workers toward Saturday 
afternoon classes (table), 117; sug- 
gested programs for schools, 140. 

Continuation Schools: in Germany, 
9, 14, 29, 115; in Erfurt, 111; in 
Breslau, 111; in Vermelskirchen, 
111,112; in Great Britain, 112; in 
Munich, 155; proposed legislation 
regarding, 22. 

Cotton Industry. See Textile Indus- 
try. 

Department Stores : reason for study- 
ing, 29; young workers in need of 
part-time schooling, 54; practica- 
bility of part-time schooling, 115, 
116; suggested programs for 



Department Stores — Con. 

schools, 140, 141; number of 
children between fourteen and 
seventeen years of age at work 
in Massachusetts, 147; sources of 
material for study, 147; nativity 
of workers (table), 148; ages of 
women (table), 148; age at leav- 
ing school (table), 150; reason for 
leaving school, 150; comparison of 
earnings of groups investigated by 
Minimum Wage Commission and 
group attending salesmanship 
classes before and after training 
(table), 152; existing means for 
training workers, 153, 154; ap- 
prenticeship system, 154; possible 
means of education, 155-159; 
equipment necessary for salesman- 
ship school, 156; needs of an un- 
trained salesgirl, 158. See also 
Union School of Salesmanship. 

Douglas Report on Industrial Edu- 
cation, 38, 40, 42, 92 (foot-note). 

Employers: opinions on practicability 
of part-time schooling, 119-123. 

England: half-time schools, 115. 

Evening Schools: do not solve prob- 
lem of educating young workers, 
13. 

Fall River: comparison of number of 
children granted work certificates 
for mills with truant officers' re- 
ports of same children, 32; per 
cent, of young people who work in 
cotton mills, 32; amount of sum- 
mer employment in cotton mills, 
32; age at which 153 unemployed 
boys left school (table,) 45; grade 
last attended bj^ 153 unemployed 
boys (table), 47; number of chil- 
dren fourteen years of age at work 
in cotton mills from, truant offi- 
cers' report, and number of children 
granted certificates to work in 
same mills for same year (table), 
103, 104. 

FiTCHBURG. See Textile Industry. 

Holyoke: half as many children four- 
teen years of age are found at 
work as there are holding age and 
schoohng certificates, 36; accu- 
rateness of truant officer's report, 
36. 

Industrial Education. See Voca- 
tional Schools. 



163 



XiAKESiDE Press: statement as to best 
arrangement of time to be spent 
at school and at work, 141, 142; 
statement as to reason for estab- 
lishing a part-time school, 143. 

Legislation Proposed: an act to pro- 
vide for the establishment and 
maintenance of continuation 
schools for young workers, 22, 23. 

Lynn. See Boot and Shoe Industry. 

Machine Industry: only industry 
studied maintaining a system of 
training in the shop, 53; condi- 
tions in machine shops, 65; typi- 
cal expressions of opinion of 
apprentices, 66; practicability of 
part-time schooling, 117, 118; sug- 
gested programs for schools, amount 
of time, 139; program of work, 139, 
140. ■ 

Metal Trades: reason for studying, 
29. 

Minimum Wage Commission, 67, 69, 
147-152. 

Monotony of Work: effect on shift- 
ing of Lowell workers, 10, 54. 

Newton. See Printing and Publishing 
Industry. 

Opportunity to advance in Indus- 
try, lack of, 11. 

Part-time Schooling: definition, 8; 
problem, 8; forms, 9; in England, 
9, 17; need, 12; as it exists in 
America, 17; attitude of employers, 
18 ; suggested programs, 19 ; should 
be made compulsory, 20; proposed 
legislation requiring attendance, 22 ; 
information necessary to make 
schools successful, 28. 

Practicability of Part-time School- 
ing: . from the standpoint of the 
worker, 14; from the standpoint of 
school organization, 15; from the 
standpoint of the organization of 
industry, 16; standpoints from 
which it is considered, 99; atti- 
tude of employers, 99-101. 
Effect on the Industry: department 
stores, 101; machine industry, 102; 
printing and publishing, 102; shoe 
manufacturing, 102; bookbinding, 
103; textile industry, 103; previous 
experiments, 104-106; attitude of 
■the workers, 106, 107; detailed 
consideration of industries, 107- 
118; replacing pupils, boot and 



Practicability of Part-time School- 
ing — ■ Con. 

shoe industry, 110; reasons why 
unions should not object, 110, 111. 
See also Employers. 

Printing and Publishing: number of 
children employed, 9; reason for 
studying, 29; suggested programs 
for schools, amount and arrange- 
ment of time, 141, 142; suggested 
programs for school courses of 
training, 142, 143. 

Public School: agency for furnishing 
general training, 37, 38. 

Quincy: study made of needs of com- 
munity, 146. 

School Attendance: proposed legis- 
lation, 21; in Germany, 27. 

School Programs: kind of training 
which should be provided, 124; 
types of training which should be 
provided for, 125; type of institu- 
tion needed, 126; efficiency of in- 
struction, 126, 127; co-operation 
of employers, 127 ; amount of time 
which should be given to school 
attendance, 127; flexible programs 
to meet individual needs, 127; 
classes of those with similar needs 
and experience, 128; equipment 
necessary, 128; probable cost, 128, 
129; qualifications of teachers, 129; 
method of training, 130-132; 
training away from one occupation 
into another, 132, 133; for a city 
of only one industry, 133-136. 

Shoe Industry. See Boot and Shoe 
Industry. 

Shoe Schools: number visited, 87; 
processes taught and number of 
students learning each (table), 88; 
processes taught and tuition for 
each (table), 89; processes taught 
men and women (table) , 90 ; value 
of instruction, 91. 

Skilled Process: difficulty in learn- 
ing, 11. 

Textile Indtistry: number of chil- 
dren employed, 9; per cent, of 
workers beginning work at four- 
teen years of age, 10; amount of 
time lost by young workers in Fall 
River and New Bedford, 10; ad- 
vance in wages of those one and 
six years at work, 12; reason for 
studjdng, 29; decrease in wages 



164 



Textile Industry — Con. 

after working a few years, 53; 
nationality of workers, 71; grade 
in school reached (table), 71; 
years retarded in school (table) , 72 ; 
amount of time spent at home by 
boys and girls who left school six 
years ago (table), 72; per cent, on 
skilled and unskilled work, 73; 
wages, 73; table showing number 
of children fourteen years of age 
at work in cotton mills from truant 
officer's report, and number of 
children granted certificates to 
work in same mills for same year, 
103, 104; practicability of part- 
time schooling, 112-115; suggested 
program for schools, organization 
and amount of time, 133; subject- 
matter, 134-136; equipment, 136. 

Training in Shop: no system, 53; 
study of large shoe factory which 
trains young workers, 94-98. 

Unemployed Boys: reason for study-' 
ing, 55; nationality, 55; age at 
leaving school, 55; grade reached 
in school, 55; reason for idleness, 
55. 
In Lowell: birthplaces (table), 57; 
parentage (table), 57; age on leav- 
ing school (table), 57; grade at- 
tained in school (table), 58; ages at 



Unemployed Boys — Con. 

the time of the investigation (table),. 
58; number of years since begin- 
ning work (table), 59; initial and 
last salary received, amount of 
increase according to length of 
service (table), 59; typical cases, 
60, 61; evening school attendance 
(table), 62. 

Vocational Schools : development 
and place, 38-40; largest contri- 
bution, 39; type of teacher needed, 
40; other existing agencies for fur- 
nishing, 41; corporation schools^ 
41; philanthropic schools, 41; tex- 
tile schools, 41, 42; all-day school, 
12, 19, 42, 43; reasons for failure 
to establish, 43; means necessary 
to establish, 43; future Unes of 
development, 144-146. See also 
Douglas Report; Shoe Schools. 

Women's Educational and Indus- 
trial Union: 
Union School of Salesmanship, 41, 
101, 104; history of development, 
149; value of training received 
there as measured by the selling 
power of pupils, 156; normal 
course for training of teachers, 156, 
157; program of study used, 158, 
159. iSee also Department Stores. 



